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.
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.