In this article I present several topics related to the moral philosophy of animal rights:
Defining moral illusions: persistent intuitive moral judgments that violate our strongest and deepest moral values.
Detecting moral illusions: looking for unwanted arbitrariness (picking an element from a set without following a rule and with the reasonable objection of at least someone).
Defining the most fundamental principle in ethics, based on the idea to avoid unwanted arbitrariness: for every choice you make, you have to be able to give a justifying rule of which you can consistently want that everyone follows that rule in all possible situations.
Defining discrimination: treating A better than B in a way that B cannot want, based on arbitrary criteria and without tolerating swapping positions (treating A like B and vice versa).
Arguing why speciesism (valuing humans higher than non-human animals) is a kind of discrimination because it involves unwanted arbitrariness.
Defining the right to bodily autonomy: we are not allowed to use someone else’s body against that person’s will.
Arguing why this right to bodily autonomy is the most fundamental right, because it does not impose negative externalities (a certain kind of costs) on others.
Arguing why veganism is a moral duty based on the principles of antidiscrimination and the right to bodily autonomy.
Arguing why speciesism is a persistent moral illusion, with the example of wild animal suffering.
Arguing why we should start doing scientific research in welfare biology to look for safe and effective methods to intervene in nature to improve wild animal well-being.
Explaining the connection between pseudo-ethics and pseudoscience: both involve avoidable and unwanted arbitrariness.
Speciesism, arbitrariness and moral illusions
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In this article I present several topics related to the moral philosophy of animal rights:
Defining moral illusions: persistent intuitive moral judgments that violate our strongest and deepest moral values.
Detecting moral illusions: looking for unwanted arbitrariness (picking an element from a set without following a rule and with the reasonable objection of at least someone).
Defining the most fundamental principle in ethics, based on the idea to avoid unwanted arbitrariness: for every choice you make, you have to be able to give a justifying rule of which you can consistently want that everyone follows that rule in all possible situations.
Defining discrimination: treating A better than B in a way that B cannot want, based on arbitrary criteria and without tolerating swapping positions (treating A like B and vice versa).
Arguing why speciesism (valuing humans higher than non-human animals) is a kind of discrimination because it involves unwanted arbitrariness.
Defining the right to bodily autonomy: we are not allowed to use someone else’s body against that person’s will.
Arguing why this right to bodily autonomy is the most fundamental right, because it does not impose negative externalities (a certain kind of costs) on others.
Arguing why veganism is a moral duty based on the principles of antidiscrimination and the right to bodily autonomy.
Arguing why speciesism is a persistent moral illusion, with the example of wild animal suffering.
Arguing why we should start doing scientific research in welfare biology to look for safe and effective methods to intervene in nature to improve wild animal well-being.
Explaining the connection between pseudo-ethics and pseudoscience: both involve avoidable and unwanted arbitrariness.
The full article can be downloaded here: Speciesism, arbitrariness and moral illusions