(August 2, 2017 at 7:23 pm)Astonished Wrote: The experience of a contemplative being, us being the pinnacle (as far as we know) then it's fair to say our capacity for suffering and joy are far greater than that of less sapient organisms, so that is at least a consideration.Is this actually a rational point, or is it an anthropocentric bias? I don't think you need to be deeply contemplative to know when your new baby is getting dragged away by hostile strangers, or to know that being stuck in a space exactly the size of your body and no larger sucks.
But let's say I could arrange for someone with no social connections to be killed. . . say a new immigrant who's met nobody. Let's say I put a drug in his drink that puts him into a painless sleep, and off him-- maybe because I value true red-white-and-blue (read: white) Americans over immigrant lives. Since there's no suffering, is my act now moral?
