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The Origin of Speciesism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Hugh Lafollette  and
Niall Shanks
Hugh Lafollette
Affiliation:
East Tennessee State University
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Extract

Anti-vivisectionists charge that animal experimenters are speciesists—people who unjustly discriminate against members of other species. Until recently most defenders of experimentation denied the charge. After the publication of The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research in the New England Journal of Medicine, experimenters had a more aggressive reply: I am a speciesist. Speciesism is not merely plausible, it is essential for right conduct .... Most researchers now embrace Cohen's response as part of their defense of animal experimentation. Cohen asserts that both rights and utilitarian arguments

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 71 , Issue 275 , January 1996 , pp. 41 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1996

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References

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3 According to nineteenth century Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, the biblical Adam was only the Adam of the Caucasians. Different ancestors explained racial differences, differences which Agassiz thought indisputable. And prominent atheist David Hume held similar views, although justified in different ways. See Gould, S. J., The Mismeasure of Man (New York: W.W. Norton, 1981).Google Scholar

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7 If this is not their view, then they are not bare speciesists but indirect speciesists. That is, they assume that the mere biological differences do not a moral difference make. We assume, however, they are bare speciesists. If not, talk of species loyalty is out of place and unnecessary.

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