“If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans?”

—  Peter Singer, book Animal Liberation

Source: Animal Liberation

Last update June 4, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how ca…" by Peter Singer?
Peter Singer photo
Peter Singer54
Australian philosopher 1946

Related quotes

Pierce Brown photo

“The tragedy of the gifted is the belief they are entitled to greatness, Lysander. As a human, you are entitled only to death.”

Pierce Brown book Dark Age

Source: Dark Age (2019), Ch. 34: Shadows of War; Octavia

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Afro-Asian Conference (1965)
Context: For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another. As long as this has not been achieved, if we think we are in the stage of building socialism but instead of ending exploitation the work of suppressing it comes to a halt — or worse, is reversed — then we cannot even speak of building socialism.

Immanuel Kant photo

“Human freedom is realised in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself, for the one thing that no-one can be compelled to do by another is to adopt a particular end.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Part Two : Metaphysical Principles of Virtue
Metaphysics of Morals (1797)

Dorothy Thompson photo

“The American Revolution of 1776 was a great liberal revolution. The Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, more than any documents on earth, embody the fundamentals of liberalism. These documents assert the essential equality of human beings. This does not mean, and never did, that one man is as talented, or wise, or good as another, or that each person is entitled to the same rewards. It does mean that every human being has a right to his own life; that no man may be forced to labor against his will, or to assert beliefs contrary to his conscience, or be relegated to one class of society.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
pp. 64-65

Richard Stallman photo

“Odious ideas are not entitled to hide from criticism behind the human shield of their believers' feelings.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

"Sayings" at Richard Stallman's personal site (c. 2001)
2000s

Elizabeth Gilbert photo

“You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Andrew Carnegie photo

“A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American businessman and philanthropist

Ralph Bunche photo

“The international problems with which the United Nations is concerned are the problems of the interrelations of the peoples of the world. They are human problems. The United Nations is entitled to believe, and it does believe, that there are no insoluble problems of human relations and that there is none which cannot be solved by peaceful means. The United Nations”

Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) American diplomat

in Indonesia, Palestine, and Kashmir - has demonstrated convincingly that parties to the most severe conflict may be induced to abandon war as the method of settlement in favour of mediation and conciliation, at a merciful saving of untold lives and acute suffering. Unfortunately, there may yet be some in the world who have not learned that today war can settle nothing, that aggressive force can never be enough, nor will it be tolerated. If this should be so, the pitiless wrath of the organized world must fall upon those who would endanger the peace for selfish ends. For in this advanced day, there is no excuse, no justification, for nations resorting to force except to repel armed attack.
Some Reflections on Peace in Our Time (1950)

“It seems to me that entitlement is the key to nearly all atrocities, and that any threat to perceived entitlement will provoke hatred. The man who flayed the cat presumably felt that his employers were entitled to the cat's skin. Europeans felt that they were (and are) entitled to the land of North and South America. Slave owners clearly felt they were entitled to the labor (and the lives) of their slaves, not only in partial payment for protecting slaves from their own idleness, but also simply as a return on their capital investment. Owners of nonhuman capital today feel they, too, are entitled to the "surplus return on labor," as economists put it, as part of their reward for furnishing jobs, and to provide a return on their investment in capital. Rapists act on the belief that they are entitled to their victims' bodies, and entitled to inflict cruelty upon them. Americans act as though we are entitled to consume the majority of the world's resources, and the change the world's climate. All industrialized humans act like they're entitled to anything they want on this planet.”

Derrick Jensen book The Culture of Make Believe

Source: The Culture of Make Believe (2003), p. 105-6

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

The Liberty Manifesto (1993)

Related topics