I think it’s also helpful to empathise the other way around too when working on these thought-experiments. Species-membership is merely a shortcut for speaking about typical cognitive and hedonic capacities in this report, species itself is irrelevant. You might be thinking that prioritising the torture of 1000 chickens over the life of one human being doesn’t make you feel valued as much as you should be.
But it could be the other way around in the real life as well. An illness could befall on us or our loved ones. It could very much be the case that my sister had cognitive/hedonic capacities comparable to a pig. I wouldn’t feel very much valued if my sister being tortured for a year was considered to be less of a deal compared to averting the 10 minutes long headache of a typical human being in this case.
I think it’s also helpful to empathise the other way around too when working on these thought-experiments. Species-membership is merely a shortcut for speaking about typical cognitive and hedonic capacities in this report, species itself is irrelevant. You might be thinking that prioritising the torture of 1000 chickens over the life of one human being doesn’t make you feel valued as much as you should be.
But it could be the other way around in the real life as well. An illness could befall on us or our loved ones. It could very much be the case that my sister had cognitive/hedonic capacities comparable to a pig. I wouldn’t feel very much valued if my sister being tortured for a year was considered to be less of a deal compared to averting the 10 minutes long headache of a typical human being in this case.