1) Different options or uncertainty about the moral relevance of different qualia.
It’s unclear that physical pain is the same experience for humans, cats, fish, and worms.
Even if it is the same mental experience, the moral value may differ due to the lack of memory or higher brain function. For example, I think there’s a good argument that pain that isn’t remembered, for instance via the use of Scopolamine, is (still morally relevant but) less bad than pain experienced that is remembered. Beings incapable of remembering or anticipating pain would have intrinsically less morally relevant experiences—perhaps far less.
2) Higher function as a relevant factor in assessing moral badness of negative experiences
I think that physical pain is bad, but when considered in isolation, it’s not the worst thing that can happen. Suffering includes the experience of anticipation of bad, the memory of it occurring, the appreciation of time and lack of hope, etc. People would far prefer to have 1 hour of pain and the knowledge that it would be over at that point than have 1 hour of pain but not be sure when it would end. They’d also prefer to know when the pain would occur, rather than have it be unexpected. These seem to significantly change the moral importance of pain, even by orders of magnitude.
3) Different value due to potential for positive emotion.
If joy and elation is only possible for humans, it may be that they have higher potential for moral value than animals. This would be true even if their negative potential was the same. In such a case, we might think that the loss of potential was morally important, and say that the death of a human, with the potential for far more positive experience, is more morally important than the death of an animal.
I think that physical pain is bad, but when considered in isolation, it’s not the worst thing that can happen. Suffering includes the experience of anticipation of bad, the memory of it occurring, the appreciation of time and lack of hope, etc. People would far prefer to have 1 hour of pain and the knowledge that it would be over at that point than have 1 hour of pain but not be sure when it would end. They’d also prefer to know when the pain would occur, rather than have it be unexpected. These seem to significantly change the moral importance of pain, even by orders of magnitude.
It seems this consideration would provide a (pro tanto) reason for valuing nonhumans more than humans. If pain metacognition can reduce the disvalue of suffering, nonhuman animals, who lack such capacities, should be expected to have worse experiences, other things equal.
It’s a bit more complex than that. If you think animals can’t anticipate pain, or can anticipate it but cannot understand the passage of time, or understand that pain might continue, you could see an argument for animal suffering being less important than human suffering.
So yes, this could go either way—but it’s still a reason one might value animals less.
(1) and (2) would be roughly my answers as well. There’s also an instrumental factor (which I’m not sure is in the scope of the original question, but seems important) that human suffering and death has far larger knock-on effects on the future than that of non-human animals.
Regarding (3), is there reason to think joy and elation are only possible for humans? It seems likely to me that food, sex, caring for young, pair bonding etc. feel good for nonhuman animals, dogs seem like they’re pretty happy a lot of the time, et cetera. Of course (1) and (2) apply to positive as well as negative experiences – humans are more able to pleasantly anticipate and fondly remember good experiences – but the phrasing here seemed to be making a stronger claim than that.
Regarding 3, no, it’s unclear and depends on the specific animal, what we think their qualia are like, and the specific class of experience you think are valuable.
People would far prefer to have 1 hour of pain and the knowledge that it would be over at that point than have 1 hour of pain but not be sure when it would end. They’d also prefer to know when the pain would occur, rather than have it be unexpected. These seem to significantly change the moral importance of pain, even by orders of magnitude.
This seems like an argument for animal pain mattering more compared to human pain when the human expects the pain and/or expects it to end.
1) Different options or uncertainty about the moral relevance of different qualia.
It’s unclear that physical pain is the same experience for humans, cats, fish, and worms.
Even if it is the same mental experience, the moral value may differ due to the lack of memory or higher brain function. For example, I think there’s a good argument that pain that isn’t remembered, for instance via the use of Scopolamine, is (still morally relevant but) less bad than pain experienced that is remembered. Beings incapable of remembering or anticipating pain would have intrinsically less morally relevant experiences—perhaps far less.
2) Higher function as a relevant factor in assessing moral badness of negative experiences
I think that physical pain is bad, but when considered in isolation, it’s not the worst thing that can happen. Suffering includes the experience of anticipation of bad, the memory of it occurring, the appreciation of time and lack of hope, etc. People would far prefer to have 1 hour of pain and the knowledge that it would be over at that point than have 1 hour of pain but not be sure when it would end. They’d also prefer to know when the pain would occur, rather than have it be unexpected. These seem to significantly change the moral importance of pain, even by orders of magnitude.
3) Different value due to potential for positive emotion.
If joy and elation is only possible for humans, it may be that they have higher potential for moral value than animals. This would be true even if their negative potential was the same. In such a case, we might think that the loss of potential was morally important, and say that the death of a human, with the potential for far more positive experience, is more morally important than the death of an animal.
It seems this consideration would provide a (pro tanto) reason for valuing nonhumans more than humans. If pain metacognition can reduce the disvalue of suffering, nonhuman animals, who lack such capacities, should be expected to have worse experiences, other things equal.
It’s a bit more complex than that. If you think animals can’t anticipate pain, or can anticipate it but cannot understand the passage of time, or understand that pain might continue, you could see an argument for animal suffering being less important than human suffering.
So yes, this could go either way—but it’s still a reason one might value animals less.
(1) and (2) would be roughly my answers as well. There’s also an instrumental factor (which I’m not sure is in the scope of the original question, but seems important) that human suffering and death has far larger knock-on effects on the future than that of non-human animals.
Regarding (3), is there reason to think joy and elation are only possible for humans? It seems likely to me that food, sex, caring for young, pair bonding etc. feel good for nonhuman animals, dogs seem like they’re pretty happy a lot of the time, et cetera. Of course (1) and (2) apply to positive as well as negative experiences – humans are more able to pleasantly anticipate and fondly remember good experiences – but the phrasing here seemed to be making a stronger claim than that.
Regarding 3, no, it’s unclear and depends on the specific animal, what we think their qualia are like, and the specific class of experience you think are valuable.
This seems like an argument for animal pain mattering more compared to human pain when the human expects the pain and/or expects it to end.
EDIT: Mentioned by Pablo already.
Thank you, this is helpful.