Re: further research priorities, there are “within paradigm” priorities and “beyond paradigm” priorities. As for the former, I think the most useful thing would be a more thorough investigation of theories of valence, as I think we could significantly improve the list of proxies and our scoring / aggregation methods if we had a better sense of which theories are most promising. As for the latter, my guess is that the most useful thing would be figuring out whether, given the hierarchicalism, there are any limits at all on discounting animal welfare simply because it belongs to animals. My guess is “No,” which is one of the problems with hierarchicalism, but it would be good to think this through more carefully.
Re: some animals having larger welfare ranges than humans, we don’t want to rule out this possibility, but we don’t actually believe it. And it’s worth stressing, as we stress here, that this possibility doesn’t have any radical implications on its own. It’s when you combine it with other moral assumptions that you get those radical implications.
Appreciate the comment!
Re: further research priorities, there are “within paradigm” priorities and “beyond paradigm” priorities. As for the former, I think the most useful thing would be a more thorough investigation of theories of valence, as I think we could significantly improve the list of proxies and our scoring / aggregation methods if we had a better sense of which theories are most promising. As for the latter, my guess is that the most useful thing would be figuring out whether, given the hierarchicalism, there are any limits at all on discounting animal welfare simply because it belongs to animals. My guess is “No,” which is one of the problems with hierarchicalism, but it would be good to think this through more carefully.
Re: some animals having larger welfare ranges than humans, we don’t want to rule out this possibility, but we don’t actually believe it. And it’s worth stressing, as we stress here, that this possibility doesn’t have any radical implications on its own. It’s when you combine it with other moral assumptions that you get those radical implications.