Speciesism

Speciesism is discrimination that assigns different moral worth or consideration to beings because of their species. It is commonly discussed in debates about human treatment of nonhuman animals.

Moral status: The standing of a being as worthy of moral consideration. Speciesism disputes whether species membership should determine who receives moral consideration.
Richard D. Ryder: A British psychologist and animal-rights advocate who coined the term “speciesism” in 1970. Ryder introduced the label for prejudice against nonhuman animals based on species.
Racism: Prejudice or discrimination based on perceived racial groups. Analogies between racism and speciesism illuminate arbitrary group hierarchy, while critics dispute the comparison.
Factory farming: The large-scale industrial raising of animals for food production. Critics identify its routine confinement and killing of animals for human consumption as speciesist.
Marginal cases argument: An argument that human capacities cannot consistently justify excluding animals when some humans lack those capacities. It challenges defenses of human priority based on rationality, language, or autonomy.
Sentience: The capacity to have subjective experiences, especially pleasure and suffering. Animal advocates often treat capacity for suffering, rather than species, as morally relevant.
Peter Singer: An Australian philosopher whose work helped establish contemporary animal ethics. Singer made speciesism central to a widely read argument for equal consideration of animal interests.
Sexism: Prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender. The comparison highlights how group membership can be used to discount individuals’ interests.
Animal testing: The use of nonhuman animals in experiments, tests, or research. Its justification often weighs animal suffering against anticipated human benefits.
Disability and animal ethics: The debate over how animal-ethics arguments relate to disability and the value of human lives. Critics warn that capacity-based arguments can demean disabled people; defenders distinguish moral status from ability.

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