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Thomas E. Hill Jr on the Basis of Human Dignity

Animal Ethics

It was, I suggest, to a large extent because he felt that the noblest feature of humanity is the capacity to be self-governing, to adopt principles without being influenced by sensuous motives and then to live by them whatever the contingencies. For Kant, then, worthy acts are (given human fallibility) a proper subset of right acts.

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From the Mailbag

Animal Ethics

Example: A reference to "still undemocratic Iraq" makes the assertion that eventually Iraq will be democratic. Using the human-appropriate relative pronoun "who" to refer to an animal is a planted assertion that animals should be considered in the same way that humans are considered.

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