Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 12(2003): 91-106. doi: 10.3197/096327103129341243
To show favouritism toward humans has been considered a prejudice, otherwise known as 'human chauvinism', 'anthropocentrism' or 'speciesism'. Peter Singer is one philosopher in particular who holds this view. In this paper I argue that there is a lack of coherence between his ethical ideology and his actual ethical theory. Singer's ethics in crucial respects exhibits favouritism toward humans, which is something he fails to justify non-partially and plausibly. It would thus be an instance of speciesism, in a sense of this term that he probably would accept. This, however, does not mean that his ethics should be rejected or is impossible to defend.
KEYWORDS: animals, ethics, Hare, partiality, Singer, speciesism
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