I think what you’re saying makes sense to me, but I’m confused by the fact you say “I wrote some thoughts related to moral status (not specifically welfare capacity) and personal identity here”, but then the passage appears to be about moral agency, rather than about moral status/patienthood.
And then occasionally the passage appears to use moral agency as if it means moral status/patienthood. E.g., “Perhaps people are moral agents most of the time, but wouldn’t your account mean their suffering matters less in itself while they aren’t moral agents, even as normally developed adults”. Although perhaps that reflects the particular arguments that that passage of yours was responding to.
Could you clarify which concept you were talking about in that passage?
(It looks to me like essentially the same argument you make could hold in relation to moral status anyway, so I’m not saying this undermines your points.)
The original context for that comment was in a discussion where moral agency was proposed to be important, but I think you could substitute other psychological features (autonomy, intelligence, rationality, social nature, social attachments/love, etc.) for moral agency and the same argument would apply to them.
I think what you’re saying makes sense to me, but I’m confused by the fact you say “I wrote some thoughts related to moral status (not specifically welfare capacity) and personal identity here”, but then the passage appears to be about moral agency, rather than about moral status/patienthood.
And then occasionally the passage appears to use moral agency as if it means moral status/patienthood. E.g., “Perhaps people are moral agents most of the time, but wouldn’t your account mean their suffering matters less in itself while they aren’t moral agents, even as normally developed adults”. Although perhaps that reflects the particular arguments that that passage of yours was responding to.
Could you clarify which concept you were talking about in that passage?
(It looks to me like essentially the same argument you make could hold in relation to moral status anyway, so I’m not saying this undermines your points.)
The original context for that comment was in a discussion where moral agency was proposed to be important, but I think you could substitute other psychological features (autonomy, intelligence, rationality, social nature, social attachments/love, etc.) for moral agency and the same argument would apply to them.