First read this great excerpt.
Will Humanity Ever Fully Include the Nonhuman World in Its Moral Circle?
Jeff Sebo on Our Attempts to Measure Intrinsic Value
Will Humanity Ever Fully Include the Nonhuman World in Its Moral Circle?
Here’s the book info
Description
Today, human exceptionalism is the norm. Despite occasional nods to animal welfare, we prioritize humanity, often neglecting the welfare of a vast number of beings. As a result, we use hundreds of billions of vertebrates and trillions of invertebrates every year for a variety of purposes, often unnecessarily. We also plan to use animals, AI systems, and other nonhumans at even higher levels in the future. Yet as the dominant species, humanity has a responsibility to ask: Which nonhumans matter, how much do they matter, and what do we owe them in a world reshaped by human activity and technology?
In The Moral Circle, philosopher Jeff Sebo challenges us to include all potentially significant beings in our moral community, with transformative implications for our lives and societies
This book explores provocative case studies such as lawsuits over captive elephants and debates over factory-farmed insects, and compels us to consider future ethical quandaries, such as whether to send microbes to new planets, and whether to create virtual worlds filled with digital minds. Taking an expansive view of human responsibility, Sebo argues that building a positive future requires the shedding of human exceptionalism and radically rethinking our place in the world.
About the Author
Reviews
Philosopher Sebo argues for an expansion of moral thinking to include animals, insects, plants, microbes, and even artificial intelligence… A thoughtful unsettling of moral certainty.– “Kirkus Reviews”
In The Moral Circle, Jeff Sebo defends, with engaging examples and plausible arguments, a disturbing conclusion: that the expansion of the moral circle beyond our own species, for which I have argued, does not go nearly far enough. I expect this book to trigger an important debate.–Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and Animal Liberation Now