The discrimination, exploitation and oppression of others are justified in each case with arbitrary, ethically irrelevant differences. Racists, sexists and speciesists value the interests of the members of one group (usually their own) higher than those of the others, even if these interests are lower. While meanwhile consent exists to a large extent over the refusal of racism and sexism, speciesism is still ubiquitous. All these forms of discrimination violate however the ethical principle of equality: To treat likes equally.
The term "speciesism" was coined at the beginning of the 70's by Richard Ryder.
|The following parts of this website are available in English|
|Literature||Upton Sinclair, »The Jungle« (excerpt), 1906|
|Jonathan Swift, »Gulliver's Travels« (excerpts), 1726|
|Jonathan Swift, »A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick«, 1729|
|Miscellaneous||An Interview with Professor Gary L. Francione on the State of the U.S. Animal Rights Movement|
|Mr. Terrific song lyrics|
|"speciesism" (dictionary entries)|
|English section of our partner site Maqi - for Animal Rights, Against Speciesism|