“The question is not, “Can they reason?” nor, “Can they talk?” but, “Can they suffer?”
Science, in this case the genius of Darwinism, actually makes we ‘human animals’ ask the question, “what is so different about us than other animals?“. Rather than support animal exploitation, it makes us have to take more seriously other animals’ capacity to suffer. So do truly ethical philosophies.
The justification for the abuse of animals belongs to tribalist religion and false capitalism.
Other animals, which, on account of their interests having been neglected by the insensibility of the ancient [law makers], stand degraded into the class of things. Animals, the greater part of the species, are still treated as slaves. The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation will acquire those rights which never could have been withheld from them … except for the hand of [human] tyranny.
It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the kind of skin are insufficient reasons for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.
What is it that should trace the line [which divides human beings from other animals]?
Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps, the faculty for discourse?
The question is not …
“Can they reason?” nor, “Can they talk?” but, “Can they suffer?”.
paraphrased from Jeremy Bentham – 1781
Peter Singer is best known for his book ‘Animal Liberation‘, first published in 1975. It is widely regarded as the touchstone of the Animal Liberation Movement.
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