Is speciesism an ethical issue?
Speciesism and bigotry Speciesism is often condemned as the same sort of bigotry as racism or sexism. People who oppose speciesiesm say that giving human beings greater rights than non-human animals is as arbitrary (and as morally wrong) as giving white people greater rights than non-white people.
What’s wrong with speciesism?
With speciesism, the bias is in favor of humans over animals. Indeed, mistreatment of animals is utterly pervasive in our way of life. But speciesism is sheer prejudice — nothing more — and our giving greater consideration to humans than to animals is utterly unjustified.
What is Peter Singer’s concept of speciesism?
In his groundbreaking book Animal Liberation, philosopher Peter Singer defines speciesism as “a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species.” But it’s also speciesist to treat one animal’s life as more valuable than another’s.
What is an example of speciesism?
Speciesism is a form of discrimination – discrimination against those who don’t belong to a certain species. In most human societies, it is considered completely normal to discriminate against animals of other species. For example, dogs, cows, and dolphins are regarded very differently in some societies than in others.
Can speciesism be justified?
No one has succeeded in showing race or sex to be a morally relevant characteristic, or in showing how preference on these grounds could be justified even if race and sex are not morally relevant characteristics. It does not follow, however, that speciesism cannot be justified.
What is the opposite of speciesism?
The term ‘ethical veganism’, is sometimes also used to describe post-speciesist societies, but this term usually refers to a consumption ideology: vegan shoes are made without animal body-parts, vegan milk is made out of plant-based ingredients, etc.
What is the concept of speciesism?
“Speciesism” is the human-held belief that all other animal species are inferior. Speciesist thinking involves considering animals—who have their own desires, needs, and complex lives—as means to human ends.
Who came up with speciesism?
The term speciesism was introduced by the English philosopher Richard Ryder in the 1970s and subsequently popularized by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer.
Does Singer believe in speciesism?
Speciesism, as Singer defines it, is “an attitude of bias against a being because of the species to which it “belongs” — in short, discrimination against nonhuman animals. Singer does not think it is speciesist to think human life is more important than that of nonhuman animals in some instances.
Who opposed speciesism?
Especially 227 years of it. But in 1789, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham made an argument, the argument, for anti-speciesism that remains as relevant today as the day it was published. Bentham set out all the relevant criteria for deciding whether someone’s suffering is morally relevant.
What is speciesism according to PETA?
“Speciesism” is the human-held belief that all other animal species are inferior. It’s speciesist to believe that farmed and captive animals don’t suffer or feel emotions to the same extent as the animals with whom we lovingly share our homes.
What speciesism means?
Share Tweet. “Speciesism” is the human-held belief that all other animal species are inferior. Speciesist thinking involves considering animals—who have their own desires, needs, and complex lives—as means to human ends.