I’d be very skeptical as well of the views of the majority of humans, since we tend to be extremely biased to favor our own species, for evolutionary, cultural and biological reasons. We also benefit directly from a society that treats humans correctly, and benefit directly from animal exploitation. Some studies indicate that we put a lower moral weight to cows when there’s beef at lunch.
Plus, few people though about the topic seriously, and we are just pretty bad at imagining the happiness of other beings. We put the moral weight of a dog much higher than that of a pig (despite pigs being smarter than dogs), because we are closer to them.
There’s also a strong social stigma against those that dare to suggest otherwise.
Imagine that we were able to ask carps how much they’d weigh their own lives compared to that of humans. It would be pretty unlikely that they’d say “well, I disagree with your 12 to 1 human/carp ratio, I rather think that it’s worth sacrificing a hundred of us for one human life, definitely”.
I’d be very skeptical as well of the views of the majority of humans, since we tend to be extremely biased to favor our own species, for evolutionary, cultural and biological reasons. We also benefit directly from a society that treats humans correctly, and benefit directly from animal exploitation. Some studies indicate that we put a lower moral weight to cows when there’s beef at lunch.
Plus, few people though about the topic seriously, and we are just pretty bad at imagining the happiness of other beings. We put the moral weight of a dog much higher than that of a pig (despite pigs being smarter than dogs), because we are closer to them.
There’s also a strong social stigma against those that dare to suggest otherwise.
Imagine that we were able to ask carps how much they’d weigh their own lives compared to that of humans. It would be pretty unlikely that they’d say “well, I disagree with your 12 to 1 human/carp ratio, I rather think that it’s worth sacrificing a hundred of us for one human life, definitely”.