I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies, it’s addressed most of my concerns.
Based on my initial exposure to the field I was assuming that Wild Animal Welfare’s long term goal would be to convince people of a worldview directly opposed to my own, i.e. some form of negative utilitarianism, which I reject for both philosophical and mental health reasons. Regardless of how likely this project was to succeed, it seemed like the kind of thing I should be against, since arguments in favour of destroying the natural world could be very useful to people who planned on doing that anyway. Nature seems pretty useful, I’d hate to lose it without good reason.
I mentioned negative utilitarianism, and so inevitably world destruction came up. I’ll make it clear that I’m totally on board with destroying the world in order to replace it with something better, but for practical reasons we’re going to have to do that incrementally. I’m opposed to destroying the world in order to prevent anyone from suffering, which was what I assumed the field would lead to before hearing more about it. I now feel that this will probably be the first kind of destruction, which I’m fine with.
Upvoted. Thank you for raising your concerns in an honest but constructive / curious manner!
FWIW I think I’ve been the closest to what one might call the “weird radical view” of wild-animal welfare in this discussion, and I am very much not a negative utilitarian. I really hope we can make the future of nature a happy one.
This was such an interesting discussion! Jordan, I was particularly impressed by (and grateful for) the way you continued to clarify the nature of your concerns while simultaneously remaining open to the new evidence and arguments others shared.
And for what it’s worth, I think “Other people are doing this thing wrong!” is a great reason to do that thing yourself. I hope anyone with concerns about wild animal welfare will join the movement and make it better—or at least voice those concerns as productively as you did.
I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies, it’s addressed most of my concerns.
Based on my initial exposure to the field I was assuming that Wild Animal Welfare’s long term goal would be to convince people of a worldview directly opposed to my own, i.e. some form of negative utilitarianism, which I reject for both philosophical and mental health reasons. Regardless of how likely this project was to succeed, it seemed like the kind of thing I should be against, since arguments in favour of destroying the natural world could be very useful to people who planned on doing that anyway. Nature seems pretty useful, I’d hate to lose it without good reason.
I mentioned negative utilitarianism, and so inevitably world destruction came up. I’ll make it clear that I’m totally on board with destroying the world in order to replace it with something better, but for practical reasons we’re going to have to do that incrementally. I’m opposed to destroying the world in order to prevent anyone from suffering, which was what I assumed the field would lead to before hearing more about it. I now feel that this will probably be the first kind of destruction, which I’m fine with.
Upvoted. Thank you for raising your concerns in an honest but constructive / curious manner!
FWIW I think I’ve been the closest to what one might call the “weird radical view” of wild-animal welfare in this discussion, and I am very much not a negative utilitarian. I really hope we can make the future of nature a happy one.
This was such an interesting discussion! Jordan, I was particularly impressed by (and grateful for) the way you continued to clarify the nature of your concerns while simultaneously remaining open to the new evidence and arguments others shared.
And for what it’s worth, I think “Other people are doing this thing wrong!” is a great reason to do that thing yourself. I hope anyone with concerns about wild animal welfare will join the movement and make it better—or at least voice those concerns as productively as you did.