PHL273H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Motivated Reasoning, Naturalistic Fallacy, Eating Animals
Document Summary
Utilitarianism and the moral status of animals #2. Equal consideration of interests: ethical mode of thinking, my interests cannot weigh more just because they are mine, giving equal weight in our moral deliberations to the like interests of all those affected by our actions. Unequal consideration of interests: pre-ethical stage, all that matters is how my decision affects my interests. Provides a good reason why interests of a living thing with that attribute should be weighed in the first place, or should be weighed more than interests of a living thing without that attribute. If the thing is sentient, should it"s interests matter more than those of a non-sentient thing: according to singer, yes. Pain is pain no matter whose it is. Fact that there is someone experiencing pain makes that state bad. If that is true, it does not matter morally speaking who feels it. Just the state of being in pain is bad.
