Bullshit Essay, Research Paper

Most of us believe that we are entitled to treat members of other species in ways which would be considered wrong if inflicted

on members of our own species. We kill them for food, keep them confined, use them in painful experiments. The moral

philosopher has to ask what relevant difference justifies this difference in treatment. A look at this question will lead us to

re-examine the distinctions which we have assumed make a moral difference.

It has been suggested by Peter Singer1 that our current attitudes are “speciesist,” a word intended to make one think of “racist”

or “sexist.” The idea is that membership in a species is in itself not relevant to moral treatment, and that much of our behavior

and attitudes towards nonhuman animals is based simply on this irrelevant fact.

There is, however, an important difference between racism or sexism and “speciesism.” We do not subject animals to different

moral treatment simply because they have fur and feathers, but because they are in fact different from human beings in ways that

could be morally relevant. It is false that women are incapable of being benefited by education, and therefore that claim cannot

serve to justify preventing them from attending school. But this is not false of cows and dogs, even chimpanzees. Intelligence is

thought to be a morally relevant capacity because of its relation to the capacity for moral responsibility.

What is Singer’s response? He agrees that nonhuman animals lack certain capacities that human animals possess, and that this

may justify different treatment. But it does not justify giving less consideration to their needs and interests. According to Singer,

the moral mistake which the racist or sexist makes is not essentially the factual error of thinking that blacks or women are

inferior to white men. For even if there were no factual error, even if it were true that blacks and women are less intelligent and

responsible than whites and men, this would not justify giving less consideration to their needs and interests. It is important to

note that the term “speciesism” is in one way like, and in another way unlike, the terms “racism” and “sexism.” What the term

“speciesism” has in common with these terms is the reference to focusing on a characteristic which is, in itself, irrelevant to moral

treatment. And it is worth reminding us of this. But Singer’s real aim is to bring us to a new understanding of the idea of equality.

The question is, on what do claims to equality rest? The demand for human equality is a demand that the interests of all human

beings be considered equally, unless there is a moral justification for not doing so. But why should the interests of all human

beings be considered equally? In order to answer this question, we have to give some sense to the phrase, “All men (human

beings) are created equal.”