On Speciesism

What this episode covers

In today’s podcast, we start to unpack the idea of Speciesism and how social hierarchies hurt not just all living beings but also tacitly endorses the suffering of human beings lower on the social caste. What is Speciesism? Lets go to wikipedia for more! Speciesism (/ˈspiːʃiːˌzɪzəm, -siːˌzɪz-/) is a term used in philosophy regarding the treatment of individuals of different species. The term has several different definitions within the relevant literature.[1] A common element of most definitions is that speciesism involves treating members of one species as morally more important than members of other species in the context of their similar interests.[2] Some sources specifically define speciesism as discrimination or unjustified treatment based on an individual’s species membership,[3][4][5] while other sources define it as differential treatment without regard to whether the treatment is justified or not.[6][7] Richard 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.”[8] Speciesism results in the belief that humans have the right to use non-human animals, which scholars say is so pervasive in the modern society.[9][10][11] Studies increasingly suggest that people who support animal exploitation also tend to endorse racist, sexist, and other prejudicial views, which furthers the beliefs in human supremacy and group dominance to justify systems of inequality and oppression.[10][11][12][13][14] Some philosophers have argued that there is a normative relationship between speciesism and other prejudices such as racism, sexism, homophobia and so forth.[3][13]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism#cite_note-Singer2009a-1