Equality,

Race and
Species
WEEK 7

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Objectives
1. We want to approach the issue of
killing animals
2. To do this, we need to understand
Singers concept of speciesism
3. To understand speciesism, we will
start by looking at Singers account of
racism

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What is racism?
A paradigm case: Nazi Germany
1.Racist beliefs & statements: The Aryan race is
inherently different from other races in important
ways.
2.Racist sentiments (attitude or emotions): Germans
stating that Jewish people are filthy
3.Racist actions and policies: The Nuremberg laws
which deprived German Jews of citizenship.

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What is racism?
Another paradigm case: Apartheid South
Africa
1. Racist beliefs and statements: White people are culturally,
intellectually and morally superior to blacks.
2. Racist sentiments made by certain races which consider black
people as having low IQs.
3. Racist actions and policies: Pass laws made blacks lesser citizens
than whites
Two Questions
1. Which of these (racist beliefs,
racist policies & racist
sentiments) are essential to the
phenomenon of racism?
2. What makes racism morally
wrongful?

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Quiz
For each of the following, is it an example of
(A) racist beliefs; (B) racist sentiments; (C) racist
actions; or (D) a mixture?

1. A South African cricketer runs onto the MCG and someone yells
a racial insult at him.
2. A government official who hates people of Middle Eastern
origin denies such a person access to a benefit to which he or
she is entitled.
3. A university lecturer tells his class that African races are
genetically pre-disposed to lower IQs and that increased
immigration from Africa will lead to higher crime rates.

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Some lessons?
The boundaries between beliefs,
sentiments and actions can get
blurred
Moral beliefs seem to lie behind
many sentiments and actions

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Racism as a matter
of belief?
Hypothesis: What makes racism wrong is that
it is based on false beliefs
Worry: Does this really explain what is wrong
with racism?
Further worries:
What if some of a racists beliefs turn out to
be true?
Also, even if a racists beliefs are false, that
does not seem to explain why we so
disapprove of racism

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Is the thoughtless racist
a possibility?

Jones is as ethical as a brick. He lives

in an apartheid state and gives no thought to
the reasons why some people are
discriminated against. He just does it himself
because everyone else does.

A racist without racist beliefs?

Racist actions on the basis of no particular racist
beliefs?

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Racism as racist
action
Perhaps racism is not so much a matter of beliefs as it is of actions of a
certain sort discriminatory ones

Question: what do all discriminatory actions have in common?

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Discrimination as the
denial of equality
The principle that all humans are equal is
now part of the prevailing political and
ethical orthodoxy (Singer,1993:16)

But what does this principle mean? It is

simply not true that all are equal with respect
to intelligence or beauty or weight, etc.

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A non-factual approach
to equality
Singer avoids the problem of trying to find a factual equality. Peoples
equality is not a fact about them, but rather a directive about how they
should be treated
Principle Of Equality (POE): Treat like interests equally
give equal weight in our moral deliberations to the like interests of all
those affected by our actions (Singer, 1993: 21)

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Imperatives and
truth-aptness
Imperatives or commands may be such that there are good (or poor)
reasons for them, but they are not themselves true or false
POE is a command: treat like interests equally!
Singer thinks that anyone who understands moral reasoning will see
that there are good reasons to obey POE

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Imperatives and
truth-aptness
More explicitly
1.Ethical behaviour requires a universal point of view
2.A universal point of view requires that I take into account the interests
of all those affected impartially
3.So ethical behaviour requires something like the POE

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Does equality of
interests mean equality
of treatment?
The principle of equal consideration of
interests act like a pair of scales, weighing
interests impartially. True scales favour the
side where the interest is stronger or where
several interests combine to outweigh a
smaller number of similar interests; but they
take no account of whose interests they are
weighing. (Singer 1993: 22)

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POE and Racism
What is wrong with racism or sexism is not the mistaken beliefs about
the facts concerning difference in themselves
It is the violation of POE
Racists and sexists dont treat equal interests equally by discounting on
the basis of race or sex

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Finally speciesism
Racists prefer the interests of their
racial group (contra POE)
Speciesists prefer the interests of
their species (contra POE)

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Speciesism as
discrimination
Forms of violating the principle of equality
Racists: Favour interests of their own group above that of others
Sexists: Favour interests of their own sex above that of others
Speciesists: Favour interests of their own species above that of others

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Animal Liberation
(1975)
Seminal for animal rights movement
Expansion of utilitarianism to animals
Greatest good of the greatest number
Popularized the term of speciesism
Practice of privileging animals over
humans

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Singers influence
All animals should be liberated
No selectivity in terms of species, practices and moral actions

1980s: Wide influence in animal rights movement

Preoccupation with animal testing, fur & circuses
20-40 million animals die in experimentation every year
Less than two days toll in American slaughterhouses
Ten billion killed every year in the USA alone

1990s: Vegetarianism becomes widespread

Preoccupation with factory farming
Currently 3% of Americans are vegetarian (roughly 12 million)
Compare to India: Religion motivating vegetarianism
Almost half of the population (400 million)
Animal & Human
interests
Animal interests in not being factory farmed:
Avoiding pain
Avoiding boredom
Enjoying freedom of movement
Enjoying interactions with other animals and
environment

Our interests in factory farming

Eating meat and eggs
Getting them very cheaply

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Weighing these
interests
Singer thinks that once you know the conditions
under which much of our animal products are
produced, you would not be able to say that your
interests outweigh the interests of the animals in
not enduring this
The only way you could think your interests were
greater would be if you engaged in the discounting
characteristic of racism and sexism (and now
speciesism)

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PETA and the Holocaust
on your plate campaign
PETA: People for the Equal Treatment of
Animals

On 20 Feb., 2009 Germanys High Court

banned the exhibit on the grounds that
the campaign would have made the fate
of the victims of the Holocaust appear
banal and trivial.

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Singers argument and
the PETA ad
1. Racist actions are wrong (in part) because
they involve a systematic discounting of the
importance of interests on the basis of race.

2. Much of our treatment of animals involves a similar

discounting on the basis of species.

3. So, part of the reason why the Holocaust was wrong

is the very same reason why factory farming is
wrong: both involve interest discounting on an
irrelevant basis.

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