Right, so my theory is that it's life that matters.
And what that means is that for all living things, staying alive tends to be better than dying.
And so how does that effect what we 'should' do? Well, I think it means we have to be cognizant of when we kill a living thing. I don't think we can appease ourselves with the idea that one tree planted makes up for one cut down. Life is good for the being that has it. It is not good separate from the being that has it. It is not better for there to be more numerous lives. What is bad is a life ending when it could have continued - for I accept senescence as an acceptable cause of death.
But then we have to ask if some lives (humans? animals?) matter more than others (trees? insects?).
Let me avoid that for a minute and instead focus on what is good... and that depends on the being. For a coral, being in the sea is good. For a human, learning to read may be good (as it helps the human learn things and that helps the human survive socially, economically and so on). The duties we might have to other beings are 'not to deny them what is good for them' and 'not to do what is bad for them'. Ultimately that comes down to the things that help them survive - and that encompasses physical, mental and social well-being.
This all means that different things needs different things... if you see what I mean... but it doesn't suggest any kind of hierarchy.
I'm thinking of a blade of wheat. Or a carrot. Is it harmed if we reap it?
Sentience or consciousness allow us to create a boundary around things that matter. I think the boundary is arbitrary - but that sentience does confer extra goods and bads. An ant can't be humiliated; a person can; pollarding a tree might increase its vitality; cutting the limbs off a dog will not.
But that does not mean the ant or the tree are not harmed by being killed. Do their lives matter less because they can't feel psychological or physical pain? How can that conclusion be drawn?
Think of being born. Mammals give birth. Eggs hatch. Seeds... germinate. Is there a difference?
What about freedom to move? Things that don't move don't tend to have brains. Maybe there's something here. It leaves out the trees, to my great sadness, but there's something in this. The freedom to move... to have choices...
Comments