>>> Ken Hanly <khanly at mb.sympatico.ca> 03/04/00 04:01AM >>>
My comment relates to a later part of Singer's argument concerning speciecism.
Sentience and the capacity to have interests is what confers a right to equal
moral consideration. However the nature of an individuals' interests depends upon
their capacities, qualities, etc. A dog has no right to an education because it is
not a possible interest of a dog. However, Singer would no doubt approve precisely
the sort of thing that Marta would. Disabled people have special interests
precisely because they are disabled. So showing equal moral consideration for the
disabled could very well involve spending public money to ensure there were
parking spaces near shopping, ramps for access to buildings etc.
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CB: This is Marx's "to each according to need". Also, the "disabled" are differently abled, and it is important to be explicit about receiving "from each according to ability." The "disabled" are not without ability.
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These are the implications of Singers' views for the disabled. But also he would claim that chimpanzees as sensitive and intelligent etc. also have interests and it is wrong to ignore them to simply use them as means to our ends in painful experiments etc.
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CB: Isn't this based on semi-speciesism, in that chimpanzees are close to us in species characteristics. "Intelligent" means they think more like we do than lobsters. So , it is ok the boil the latter to death regularly.
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We would not treat intelligent and sentient humans as we do chimpanzees so unless we can give some justification for this we are guilty of speciecism. Singer is not saying that we are unjustified in treating animals differently than humans or that we must give animals the same rights as humans. That is nonsense. We ought to be able to show that differential treatment is not based upon speciecism, just as we ought to be able to show that differential treatment of women or blacks is not based upon sexism or racism.
************ CB: Isn't anti-racism and anti-sexism based on speciesism in the sense that we are all "human" underlies the concept of equality ?