Singer's views

lweiger at umich.edu lweiger at umich.edu
Wed Jun 5 18:57:38 PDT 2002


Justin wrote:
> Maybe you are right,

I would, of course, substitute "certainly" in the place of "maybe."


> but I recall that Singer framed his criteriua of
> personhood as a matter of being able to take an interest in your future
> interests.

He does, although I think my reformulation implied this ability. In a way, I suppose, it's better to mention it explicitly because it emphasizes Singer's adherence to a preference satisfaction model that a lot of consequentialists find unsatisfactory.


> Btw, Marta, the argumentum ad ignoramus is no good, How does Singer know
> that newborns can't do this? How do we know that most animals don't?

Yep. Singer had a lot fun in the NYRB responding to a letter writer who made an argument of this form with regard to plants.

-- Luke


> jks
>
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