Shelly Kagan on Speciesism

Philosophy Bites

Nigel Warburton

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2015

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

The philosopher Peter Singer is famous for his attack on speciesism, the alleged prejudice that many exhibit in favour of human interests when compared with the interests of other animals. Here Shelly Kagan outlines Singer's position and takes issue with it. In the process he makes some interesting points about prejudices in general.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is
0:03.2	This is Philosophy Bites with me Nigel Warburton and me David Edmonds
0:09.7	Philosophy Bites is unfunded. Please help us keep it going by subscribing or donating at
0:15.0	W.w.w.com
0:18.4	or you can become a patron at Patreon.
0:21.4	In the 1970s the Australian philosopher Peter Singer
0:24.3	popularised the phrase speciesism. You may think that human suffering is
0:28.7	more important than animal suffering because humans are more intelligent say
0:32.0	than animals.
0:33.0	But suppose you insist that the suffering of a human matters more than the suffering of a cow,
0:37.0	merely in virtue of it being human suffering?
0:40.0	Well, that's a singer, is speciesism. It's similar to racism and sexism and to be condemned.
0:47.0	I've always been convinced by singer's arguments.
0:50.0	The Yale philosopher Shelly Kagan used to be convinced.
0:53.0	Shelly Kagan, welcome to Philosophy Bites.
0:55.0	Glad to be here.
0:57.0	The topic we're going to focus on is speciesism.
1:00.0	What is speciesism?
1:02.0	The term speciesism was introduced by Richard Ryder,
1:06.0	but was popularized by Peter Singer in an incredibly important
1:10.0	and influential book, Animal Liberation liberation published in 1975.
1:13.6	And the basic idea is that speciesism is a kind of prejudice.
	...

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