Speciesism

This article is about the general concept. For the film, see Speciesism: The Movie.

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Speciesism (/ˈspiːʃiːˌzɪzəm, -siːˌzɪz-/) is a term used in philosophy regarding the treatment of individuals of different species. The term has several different definitions.[1] Some specifically define speciesism as discrimination or unjustified treatment based on an individual's species membership,[2][3][4] while others define it as differential treatment without regard to whether the treatment is justified or not.[5][6] Richard D. Ryder, who coined the term, defined it as "a prejudice or attitude of bias in favour of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species".[7] Speciesism results in the belief that humans have the right to use non-human animals in exploitative ways which is pervasive in the modern society.[8][9][10] Studies from 2015 and 2019 suggest that people who support animal exploitation also tend to have intersectional bias that encapsulates and endorses racist, sexist, and other prejudicial views, which furthers the beliefs in human supremacy and group dominance to justify systems of inequality and oppression.[11][12]

As a term, speciesism first appeared during a protest against animal experimentation in 1970. Philosophers and animal rights advocates state that speciesism plays a role in the animal–industrial complex,[13][14] including in the practice of factory farming, animal slaughter, blood sports (such as bullfighting, cockfighting and rodeos), the taking of animals' fur and skin, and experimentation on animals,[15][16][17] as well as the refusal to help animals suffering in the wild due to natural processes,[18][19] and the categorization of certain animals as alien, non-naturalized, feral and invasive giving then the justification to their killing or culling based on these classifications.[20]

Notable proponents of the concept include Peter Singer, Oscar Horta, Steven M. Wise, Gary L. Francione, Melanie Joy, David Nibert, Steven Best, and Ingrid Newkirk. Among academics, the ethics, morality, and concept of speciesism has been the subject of substantial philosophical debate.[26] Carl Cohen, Nel Noddings, Bernard Williams, Peter Staudenmaier, Christopher Grau, Douglas Maclean, Roger Scruton, Thomas Wells, and Robert Nozick have criticized the term or elements of it.

  1. ^ Hopster, Jeroen (1 December 2019). "The Speciesism Debate: Intuition, Method, and Empirical Advances". Animals. 9 (12): 1054. doi:10.3390/ani9121054. ISSN 2076-2615. PMC 6940905. PMID 31805715. There are various definitions of speciesism in circulation in the academic literature and beyond.
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11 ed.). Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 2004. p. 1198. ISBN 0-87779-825-7.
  3. ^ Horta, Oscar (1 June 2010). "What Is Speciesism?". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 23 (3): 243–266. Bibcode:2010JAEE...23..243H. doi:10.1007/s10806-009-9205-2. ISSN 1573-322X. [S]peciesism is the unjustified disadvantageous consideration or treatment of those who are not classified as belonging to one or more particular species.
  4. ^ Dinker, Karin Gunnarsson; Pedersen, Helena (2016). "Critical Animal Pedagogies: Re-learning Our Relations with Animal Others". In Helen E. Lees; Nel Noddings (eds.). The Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education (1 ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 415–430. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-41291-1_27. ISBN 978-1-137-41290-4. Speciesism is the name given to the presumption of human superiority over other animals and their subjection to oppression based on this belief.
  5. ^ a b Jaquet, François (1 June 2019). "Is Speciesism Wrong by Definition?". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 32 (3): 447–458. Bibcode:2019JAEE...32..447J. doi:10.1007/s10806-019-09784-1. ISSN 1573-322X. S2CID 195236790. All in all, it does not follow from the fact that speciesism is by definition a form of discrimination that it is by definition unjustified.
  6. ^ Hopster, Jeroen (1 December 2019). "The Speciesism Debate: Intuition, Method, and Empirical Advances". Animals. 9 (12): 1054. doi:10.3390/ani9121054. ISSN 2076-2615. PMC 6940905. PMID 31805715. Some authors treat speciesism as an unjustified position by definition. This is problematic, however, since the defensibility of speciesism is subject to substantive debate. A more fruitful approach is to distinguish the descriptive concept of speciesism from its normative evaluation. Here, and in what follows, I will adopt Singer's definition, according to which speciesism involves the preferential consideration of the interests of members of one's own species.
  7. ^ Singer, 1990, pp. 6, 9.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fitzgerald_Taylor_2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Dhont, Kristof; Hodson, Gordon; Leite, Ana C.; Salmen, Alina (2019). "The Psychology of Speciesism". In Kristof Dhont; Gordon Hodson (eds.). Why We Love and Exploit Animals: Bridging Insights from Academia and Advocacy (1 ed.). London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351181440. ISBN 9781351181440. S2CID 203058733.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Weitzenfeld2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jackson2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Fox, Laura (2024). "The Intersectionality of Environmental Injustice, Other Societal Harms, and Farmed Animal Welfare". Environmental Justice. 17 (2): 101–109. doi:10.1089/env.2021.0125. ISSN 1939-4071.
  13. ^ Boscardin, Livia (12 July 2016). "Greenwashing the Animal-Industrial Complex: Sustainable Intensification and Happy Meat". 3rd ISA Forum of Sociology, Vienna, Austria. ISAConf.confex.com. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  14. ^ Beirne, Piers (May 2021). "Wildlife Trade and COVID-19: Towards a Criminology of Anthropogenic Pathogen Spillover". The British Journal of Criminology. 61 (3). Oxford University Press: 607–626. doi:10.1093/bjc/azaa084. ISSN 1464-3529. PMC 7953978.
  15. ^ "Speciesism". Animal Ethics. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  16. ^ Cameron, Janet (11 April 2014). "Peter Singer on Suffering and the Consequences of 'Speciesism'". Decoded Past. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  17. ^ Almiron, Núria; Khazaal, Natalie (2016). "Lobbying against compassion: Speciesist Discourse in the Vivisection Industrial Complex". American Behavioral Scientist. 60 (3). SAGE Journals: 256–275. doi:10.1177/0002764215613402. ISSN 0002-7642. S2CID 147298407.
  18. ^ Faria, Catia; Paez, Eze (2015). "Animals in Need: The Problem of Wild Animal Suffering and Intervention in Nature". Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism. 3: 7.
  19. ^ Horta, Oscar (5 July 2016). "Changing attitudes towards animals in the wild and speciesism". Animal Sentience. 1 (7). doi:10.51291/2377-7478.1109. ISSN 2377-7478.
  20. ^ Abbate, C. E.; Fischer, Bob (November 2019). "Don't Demean "Invasives": Conservation and Wrongful Species Discrimination". Animals. 9 (11): 871. doi:10.3390/ani9110871. PMC 6912556. PMID 31717868.
  21. ^ Hopster, Jeroen (1 December 2019). "The Speciesism Debate: Intuition, Method, and Empirical Advances". Animals. 9 (12): 1054. doi:10.3390/ani9121054. ISSN 2076-2615. PMC 6940905. PMID 31805715. There are various definitions of speciesism in circulation in the academic literature and beyond. Some authors treat speciesism as an unjustified position by definition. This is problematic, however, since the defensibility of speciesism is subject to substantive debate. A more fruitful approach is to distinguish the descriptive concept of speciesism from its normative evaluation. Here, and in what follows, I will adopt Singer's definition, according to which speciesism involves the preferential consideration of the interests of members of one's own species.
  22. ^ Gruen, Lori (2017), "The Moral Status of Animals", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 6 March 2021
  23. ^ Jaworska, Agnieszka; Tannenbaum, Julie (2021), "The Grounds of Moral Status", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 6 March 2021
  24. ^ Pointing, Charlotte (19 February 2020). "What Is Speciesism? The Animal Rights Issue Explained". LiveKindly. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  25. ^ Best, Steven (2014). The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 6–11, 30–4. doi:10.1057/9781137440723. ISBN 978-1137471116.
  26. ^ [5][21][22][23][24][25]