Personal Purity Isn’t Really The Issue. Not

Evolution Has No Moral Direction. An Evolutionary Understanding Of Human Nature Can Explain The Differing Intuitions We Have When We Are Faced With An Individual Rather Than With A Mass Of People, Or With People Close To Us Rather Than With Those Far Away, But It Does Not Justify Those Feelings.

People May Hope That The Meat They Buy Came From An Animal Who Died Without Pain, But They Do Not Really Want To Know About It. Yet Those Who, By Their Purchases, Require Animals To Be Killed Do Not Deserve To Be Shielded From This Or Any Other Aspect Of The Production Of The Meat They Buy.

My Aim Is To Advocate That We Make This Mental Switch In Respect Of Our Attitudes And Practices Towards A Very Large Group Of Beings: Members Of Species Other Than Our Own - Or, As We Popularly Though Misleadingly Call Them, Animals. 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.

If Governments Did Not Mislead Their Citizens So Often, There Would Be Less Need For Secrecy, And If Leaders Knew They Could Not Rely On Keeping The Public In The Dark About What They Are Doing, They Would Have A Powerful Incentive To Behave Better.

If A Being Suffers There Can Be No Moral Justification For Refusing To Take That Suffering Into Consideration. No Matter What The Nature Of The Being, The Principle Of Equality Requires That Its Suffering Be Counted Equally With The Like Suffering - Insofar As Rough Comparisons Can Be Made - Of Any Other Being. So The Limit Of Sentience Is The Only Defensible Boundary Of Concern For The Interests Of Others. To Mark This Boundary By Some Other Characteristic Like Intelligence Or Rationality Would Be To Mark It In An Arbitrary Manner. Why Not Choose Some Other Characteristic, Like Skin Color?