Abstract:

’Speciesism’ accords greater value to human beings and their interests. It is supposed to be opposed to a liberationist stance, since it is precisely the numerous forms of discounting of animal interests which liberationists oppose. This association is mistaken. In this paper I claim that many forms of speciesism are consistent with upholding a robust liberationist agenda. Accordingly, several hotly disputed topics in animal ethics can be set aside. The significance of such clarification is that synthesizing liberationism with speciesism substantially modifies some of the coordinates of the debates over animal ethics. Secondly, defusing some counterintuitive implications of liberationism may make liberationism more popular than it currently is. Liberationism would no longer demand the eradication of ingrained speciesist intuitions. The paper finally presents a form of speciesism that does oppose liberationism, but is too strong and (fortunately) shared by few.

Notes:

Item Citation: Philosophia. Dec 2006, Vol. 34 Issue 4, p465, 11 p.Publication Type: Academic Journal; Source: Philosophia; Language: English; Publication Date: 20061201; Rights: Copyright 2006 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved., COPYRIGHT 2006 Springer; Imprint: Springer