PHIL448 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Egalitarianism, Social Contract, Speciesism

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL448
• Professor: Powers T

Document Summary

In other words, i am urging that we extend to other species the basic principle of equality that most of us recognize should be extended to all members of our own species. Equal consideration for different beings may lead to different treatment and different rights. If the demand for equality were based on the actual equality of all human beings, we would have to stop demanding equality it would be an unjustifiable demand: if a=7, jim=jane. There is no logically compelling reason for assuming that a factual difference in ability between two people justifies any difference in the amount of consideration we give to satisfying their needs and interests. The principle of the equality of human beings is not a description of an alleged actual equality among humans: it is a prescription of how we should treat humans. Bentham wrote about animal rights: the capacity for suffering is the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration.