Thanks for this post. Looking forward to more exploration on this topic.
I agree that moral circle expansion seems massively neglected. Changing institutions to enshrine (at least some) consideration for the interests of all sentient beings seems like an essential step towards creating a good future, and I think that certain kinds of animal advocacy are likely to help us get there.
As a side note, do we have any data on what proportion of EA’s adhere to the sort of “equal consideration of interests” view on animals which you advocate? I also hold this view, but its rarity may explain some differences in cause prioritization. I wonder how rare this view is even within animal advocacy.
I would guess that most of the more dedicated EAs believe in something roughly like “equal consideration of interests” (“equal consideration of equal interests” to be more specific), but many might think nonhuman animals’ interests are much less strong/important than humans, on average.
I’m somewhat less optimistic; even if most would say that they endorse this view, I think many “dedicated EAs” are in practice still biased against nonhumans, if only subconsciously. I think we should expect speciesist biases to be pervasive, and they won’t go away entirely just by endorsing an abstract philosophical argument. (And I’m not sure if “most” endorse that argument to begin with.)
Sorry, I’m a bit confused on what you mean here. I meant to be asking about the prevalence of a view giving animals the same moral status as humans. You say that many might think nonhuman animals’ interests are much less strong/important than humans. But I think saying they are less strong is different than saying they are less important, right? How strong they are seems more like an empirical question about capacity for welfare, etc.
Thanks for this post. Looking forward to more exploration on this topic.
I agree that moral circle expansion seems massively neglected. Changing institutions to enshrine (at least some) consideration for the interests of all sentient beings seems like an essential step towards creating a good future, and I think that certain kinds of animal advocacy are likely to help us get there.
As a side note, do we have any data on what proportion of EA’s adhere to the sort of “equal consideration of interests” view on animals which you advocate? I also hold this view, but its rarity may explain some differences in cause prioritization. I wonder how rare this view is even within animal advocacy.
I would guess that most of the more dedicated EAs believe in something roughly like “equal consideration of interests” (“equal consideration of equal interests” to be more specific), but many might think nonhuman animals’ interests are much less strong/important than humans, on average.
I’m somewhat less optimistic; even if most would say that they endorse this view, I think many “dedicated EAs” are in practice still biased against nonhumans, if only subconsciously. I think we should expect speciesist biases to be pervasive, and they won’t go away entirely just by endorsing an abstract philosophical argument. (And I’m not sure if “most” endorse that argument to begin with.)
Sorry, I’m a bit confused on what you mean here. I meant to be asking about the prevalence of a view giving animals the same moral status as humans. You say that many might think nonhuman animals’ interests are much less strong/important than humans. But I think saying they are less strong is different than saying they are less important, right? How strong they are seems more like an empirical question about capacity for welfare, etc.
Ya, my point is that I’d guess most dedicated EAs would endorse the principle in the abstract, but they might not think animals matter much in practice. Also, for what it’s worth, about half of EAs who responded to the diet question are at least vegetarian, and still more are reducing meat consumption: