"What do we consider disvaluable and valuable in our own lives? Some people say negative and positive experiences, others say thwarted and satisfied preferences, others say a list of things such as ignorance and knowledge, meaningless or meaningful relations, pain and pleasure, etc. All these different things require that we're sentient. We don't consider that what is valuable in our lives is just being the members of a certain species or living in some ecosystem as such. Abstract entities such as species and ecosystems cannot feel pain and other affections, and therefore don't have interests, while sentient beings do. This is why we should be concerned with what happens to sentient individuals, rather than abstract groups."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Oscar Horta, "Oscar Horta on Speciesism", Sophia: A Philosophy Magazine, 19 Sept. 2017
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Speciesism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Oscar Horta
12 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Oscar Horta →
Related Quotes
"Nowadays, there is very little we can do about [wild animal suffering]. But it is critical to start questioning the i…"
"Antispeciesism is the opposition (or the struggle against) the discrimination of those who don't belong to a certain …"
"When it comes to respecting someone, it is completely irrelevant whether that being can speak, whether she can think …"
"Part of society still confuses two movements that differ markedly: environmentalism and anti-speciesism. These facts …"
"Speciesism is not suffered by species as such, but by their individual members. There is a common confusion regarding…"
"It is commonly believed that animal ethics entails respect for natural processes, because nonhuman animals are able t…"
"This means that the number of animals that come into existence only to die shortly after is extremely high. On averag…"
"Then, I claim that if we abandon a speciesist viewpoint we should change completely the way in which we should interv…"
"What happens to all the other animals that come into existence? They die, often shortly after they start to be sentie…"
"Many people think we shouldn't worry about this. Some people hold speciesist views according to which we should only …"