Speciesism and moral status

Peter Singer

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

208 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many people believe that all human life is of equal value. Most of them also believe that all human beings have a moral status superior to that of nonhuman animals. But how are these beliefs to be defended? The mere difference of species cannot in itself determine moral status. The most obvious candidate for regarding human beings as having a higher moral status than animals is the superior cognitive capacity of humans. People with profound mental retardation pose a problem for this set of beliefs, because their cognitive capacities are not superior to those of many animals. I argue that we should drop the belief in the equal value of human life, replacing it with a graduated view that applies to animals as well as to humans.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)567-581
Number of pages15
JournalMetaphilosophy
Volume40
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2009

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Philosophy

Keywords

  • Animals
  • Disability
  • Ethics
  • Moral status
  • Speciesism

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Speciesism and moral status'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this