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Peter Singer

Peter Singer Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Peter Singer Quotes

“Becoming a vegetarian is not merely a symbolic gesture. Nor is it an attempt to isolate oneself from the ugly realities of the world, to keep oneself pure and so without responsibility for the cruelty and carnage all around. Becoming a vegetarian is a highly practical and effective step one can take toward ending both the killing of nonhuman animals and the infliction of suffering on them.”

WorldRealitySufferingAnimalResponsibilityStepsBecomingPurePhilosophicalKillingOneselfUglyPracticalsCrueltyVegetarianGesturesSymbolicCarnageInfliction
Book:Animal liberation: a new ethics for our treatment of animals
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“If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering - insofar as rough comparisons can be made - of any other being. So the limit of sentience is the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others. To mark this boundary by some other characteristic like intelligence or rationality would be to mark it in an arbitrary manner. Why not choose some other characteristic, like skin color?”

IfsMadeMatterWould BeSufferingInterestAnimalMoralPrinciplesColorLimitsEthicsConcernSkinsMarkNo Matter WhatBoundariesCharacteristicsConsiderationComparisonRoughWhy NotJustificationRationalityArbitrarySkin ColorAnimal Ethics
Author:Peter Singer
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“It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road...A stone has no interests because it cannot suffer. The capacity for suffering and enjoyment is, however, not only necessary, but also sufficient for us to say that a being has interests - at an absolute minimum, an interest in not suffering. A mouse, for example, does have an interest in not being kicked along the road because it will suffer if it is.”

IfsDoeWould BeSufferingInterestAnimalExampleCapacityStonesAbsolutesLiberationSufficientEnjoymentNonsenseMinimumMiceAnimal Liberation
Author:Peter Singer
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“The statement "I am in pain" may be one piece of evidence for the conclusion that the speaker is in pain, but it is not the only possible evidence, and since people sometimes tell lies, not even the best possible evidence. Even if there were stronger grounds for refusing to attribute pain to those who do not have language, the consequences of this refusal might lead us to reject the conclusion. Human infants and young children are unable to use language. Are we to deny that a year-old child can suffer?”

PeopleIfsYearsHumansMayChildrenSometimesUseMightPainYoungLyingSufferingLanguageAnimalPiecesEvidenceConsequenceStrongerDenyStatementsConclusionLiberationRejectsAttributesSpeakersInfantRefusalYoung ChildrenOne PieceAnimal Liberation
Book:Animal liberation: a new ethics for our treatment of animals
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“Sometimes animals may suffer more because of their more limited understanding. If, for instance, we are taking prisoners in wartime we can explain to them that although they must submit to capture, search, and confinement, they will not otherwise be harmed and will be set free at the conclusion of hostilities. If we capture wild animals, however, we cannot explain that we are not threatening their lives. A wild animal cannot distinguish an attempt to overpower and confine from an attempt to kill; the one causes as much terror as the other.”

IfsMaySometimesSufferingCausesUnderstandingAnimalTerrorConclusionInstanceLiberationPrisonerCaptureSubmitThreateningHostilityWild AnimalAnimal LiberationConfinementWartime
Author:Peter Singer
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“...the proposed air force and army experiments were designed so that many animals would suffer and die without any certainty that this suffering and death would save a single human life or benefit humans in any way at all; but the same can be said of millions of their experiments performed each year in the United States alone.”

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Book:Animal liberation: a new ethics for our treatment of animals
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“People tend to care about dogs because they generally have more experience with dogs as companions; but other animals are as capable of suffering as dogs are. Few people feel sympathy for rats. Yet rats are intelligent animals, and there can be no doubt that rats are capable of suffering and do suffer from countless painful experiments performed on them. If the army were to stop experiments on dogs and switch to rats instead, we should not be any less concerned.”

PeopleIfsFeelsShouldCareSufferingAnimalDoubtDogCapableConcernedArmyIntelligentPainfulExperimentsLiberationNo DoubtCompanionRatsAnimal Liberation
Author:Peter Singer
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“It may be thought justifiable to require tests on animals of potentially life-saving drugs, but the same kinds of tests are used for products like cosmetics, food coloring, and floor polishes. Should thousands of animals suffer so that a new kind of lipstick or floor wax can be put on the market? Don't we already have an excess of most of these products? Who benefits from their introduction, except the companies that hope to profit from them?”

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Author:Peter Singer
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“If animals are no longer quite outside the moral sphere, they are still in a special section near the outer rim. Their interests are allowed to count only when they do not clash with human interests. If there is a clash - even a clash between a lifetime of suffering for a nonhuman animal and the gastronomic preference of a human being - the interests of the nonhuman are disregarded. The moral attitudes of the past are too deeply embedded in our thought and our practices to be upset by a mere change in our knowledge of ourselves and of other animals.”

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Book:Animal Liberation
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“No consideration at all is given to the interests of the "pests" - the very word "pest" seems to exclude any concern for the animals themselves. But the classification "pest" is our own, and a rabbit that is a pest is as capable of suffering, and as deserving of consideration, as a white rabbit who is a beloved companion animal.”

SeemsSufferingGivenInterestWhiteAnimalCapableConcernLiberationBelovedConsiderationCompanionRabbitsDeservingClassificationAnimal LiberationPestsCompanion Animals
Book:Animal Liberation
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“Pain and suffering are in themselves bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers. How bad a pain is depends on how intense it is and how long it lasts, but pain of the same intensity and duration are equally bad, whether felt by humans or animals.”

ShouldHumansLongPainLastsSufferingSexFeltAnimalRaceDependsSpeciesIntenseLiberationIntensityDurationAnimal LiberationPain And Suffering
Author:Peter Singer
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“One thing is certain: you will find plenty of worthwhile things to do. You will not be bored, or lack fulfillment in your life. Most important of all, you will know that you have not lived and died for nothing, because you will have become part of the great tradition of those who have responded to the amount of pain and suffering in the universe by trying to make the world a better place.”

KnowsWorldTryingImportantPainCertainSufferingUniverseOne ThingAmountTraditionDiedPlentyBoredFulfillmentThings To DoHumanistWorthwhileBetter PlacePain And SufferingWorthwhile Things
Author:Peter Singer
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“Typically, defenders of experiments on animals do not deny that animals suffer. They cannot deny the animals' suffering, because they need to stress the similarities between humans and other animals in order to claim that their experiments may have some relevance for human purposes. The experimenter who forces rats to choose between starvation and electric shock to see if they develop ulcers (which they do) does so because the rat has a nervous system very similar to a human being's, and presumably feels an electric shock in a similar way.”

IfsWayNeedsFeelsHumansMayDoePurposeSufferingOrderForceHuman BeingsAnimalClaimsStressDenyExperimentsNervousLiberationShockElectricRatsRelevanceStarvationSimilarityDefendersNervous SystemAnimal LiberationUlcersAnimal SufferingElectric ShockExperiments On Animals
Author:Peter Singer
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