As a small note, I don’ think the “believe it because they want it to be true” is really an argument either way. To state the obvious, animal welfare researchers need sentience to be true, otherwise all the work they are doing is worth a lot less.
So I don’t think the “want it to be true” argument stands really at all. Motivations are very strong on both sides, and from a “realpolitik” kind of perspective, there’s so much more riding on this from animal researchers than there is for people like Yud and Zvi.
On the other hand, the “very few people believe animals aren’t moral patients and haven’t made great arguments for it” point for me stands very strong.
Animal welfare researchers need sentience to be true, otherwise all the work they are doing is worth a lot less.
That is fair, but there are several additional reasons why most people would want it that animals are not moral patients:
They can continue to eat them guilt-free and animals are tasty.
People can give to global health uncertainty-free and get “fuzzies” from saving human lives with pretty high confidence (I think we naturally get more fuzzies by helping people of our own species).
We wouldn’t as a human species then be committing a grave moral atrocity which would be a massive relief.
There aren’t really similar arguments for wanting animals to be moral patients (other than “I work on animal welfare”) but I would be interested if I’m missing any relevant ones.
As a small note, I don’ think the “believe it because they want it to be true” is really an argument either way. To state the obvious, animal welfare researchers need sentience to be true, otherwise all the work they are doing is worth a lot less.
So I don’t think the “want it to be true” argument stands really at all. Motivations are very strong on both sides, and from a “realpolitik” kind of perspective, there’s so much more riding on this from animal researchers than there is for people like Yud and Zvi.
On the other hand, the “very few people believe animals aren’t moral patients and haven’t made great arguments for it” point for me stands very strong.
That is fair, but there are several additional reasons why most people would want it that animals are not moral patients:
They can continue to eat them guilt-free and animals are tasty.
People can give to global health uncertainty-free and get “fuzzies” from saving human lives with pretty high confidence (I think we naturally get more fuzzies by helping people of our own species).
We wouldn’t as a human species then be committing a grave moral atrocity which would be a massive relief.
There aren’t really similar arguments for wanting animals to be moral patients (other than “I work on animal welfare”) but I would be interested if I’m missing any relevant ones.