Life without degrees of moral status : implications for rabbits, robots, and the rest of us /
"Most people believe there are degrees of moral status. Most prominently, they believe that animals matter morally, but human beings matter significantly more than animals. This belief explains why we put animals in cages, conduct pain-inducing experiments on them and eat them for dinner. Belie...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2023]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "Most people believe there are degrees of moral status. Most prominently, they believe that animals matter morally, but human beings matter significantly more than animals. This belief explains why we put animals in cages, conduct pain-inducing experiments on them and eat them for dinner. Belief in degrees of moral status also raises the possibility that robots and genetically enhanced human beings could become significantly more important than the rest of us, in which case they might be justified in putting us in cages, experimenting on us, and eating us for dinner. The present work thus systematically assesses whether, in fact, some individuals are more important morally than others. It distinguishes between moral status conferring, moral action guiding, and moral status enhancing properties, and argues that degrees of moral status require moral status enhancing properties. It then considers whether some properties are moral status enhancing to in the sense that they increase the most status of those who possess them. This analysis reveals that there are no moral status enhancing properties, hence, no degrees of moral status. The book then considers the implications of this conclusion for seven issues: 1. The difference between a world that includes degrees of moral status and one that doesn't; 2. Our obligations to help animals; 3. Animal rights; 4. Raising animals and eating them; 5. Animal experimentation; 6. Humans who lack superior cognitive capacities; and 7. Human-animal chimeras, robots and genetically enhanced human beings"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xi, 232 pages). |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0197675336 9780197675359 0197675352 9780197675335 |