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“We not only care about creatures subject to pain and suffering, we care about our own character. And that character expresses itself and develops itself--it refines itself--in just those settings in which even the wishes of others cannot defeat the principle that we take to be the grounding of our humanity. Our humanity: it seems to begin and end with conscious life--with consciousness. It's this that opens the door to all the rest. And it's how we use all the rest that serves final judgment on whether that consciousness was a gift or a test that we have failed.” — Daniel N. Robinson
We not only care about creatures subject to pain and suffering, we care about our own character. And that character expresses itself and develops itself--it refines itself--in just those settings in which even the wishes of others cannot defeat the principle that we take to be the grounding of our humanity.
Our humanity: it seems to begin and end with conscious life--with consciousness. It's this that opens the door to all the rest. And it's how we use all the rest that serves final judgment on whether that consciousness was a gift or a test that we have failed.