It Is A Mistake To Assume That

Herbert Spencer Is Little Read Now. Philosophers Do Not Regard Him As A Major Thinker. Social Darwinism Has Long Been In Disrepute.

So Far As This Argument Is Concerned Nonhuman Animals And Infants And Retarded Humans Are In The Same Category; And If We Use This Argument To Justify Experiments On Nonhuman Animals We Have To Ask Ourselves Whether We Are Also Prepared To Allow Experiments On Human Infants And Retarded Adults; And If We Make A Distinction Between Animals And These Humans, On What Basis Can We Do It, Other Than A Bare-faced - And Morally Indefensible - Preference For Members Of Our Own Species?

That's A Central Part Of Philosophy, Of Ethics. What Do I Owe To Strangers? What Do I Owe To My Family? What Is It To Live A Good Life? Those Are Questions Which We Face As Individuals.

Without In Any Way Minimising The Economic And Psychological Blow That People Experience When They Lose Their Jobs, The Unemployed In Affluent Countries Still Have A Safety Net, In The Form Of Social Security Payments, And Usually Free Healthcare And Free Education For Their Children. They Also Have Sanitation And Safe Drinking Water.

So, Basically, My View Is I Don't Want To Support The Exploitation Of Animals, And Within Reason, I Will Do What I Can To Avoid It, But It's Not Like It's A Religion For Me. It's Not Like I Consider I'm Polluted If Somehow Some Bit Of Milk Or Cheese Or Something Passes My Lips.