2015 - SAP Annual Lecture: Shelly Kagan, 'What's Wrong with Speciesism?' by AppliedPhil

The 2015 Society for Applied Philosophy annual lecture was given by Professor Shelly Kagan of Yale University.

Abstract: Peter Singer famously argued in Animal Liberation that almost all of us are speciesists, unjustifiably favoring the interests of humans over the similar interests of other animals. Although I long found that charge compelling, I now find myself having doubts. This paper starts by trying to get clear about the nature of speciesism, and then argues that Singer’s attempt to show that speciesism is a mere prejudice is unsuccessful. But I also argue that most of us are not actually speciesists at all, but rather accept a view I call modal personism. Although I am not confident that modal personism can be adequately defended, it is, at the very least, a philosophical view worthy of further consideration.