(March 13, 2026 at 5:32 pm)Disagreeable Wrote:(March 13, 2026 at 5:25 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: As such, I'd hold that the conditional basis of the taboo ought not be essential humanity, but some other quality or set of qualities. I'd include intelligence, self-awareness, capacity for empathy, though I'm sure there are other qualities I'm not thinking of at the moment.
Thanks for answering the original question!
Is being human still one of the required properties? Because, if not, then what if there was a human without these properties?
I wouldn't eat a human no matter their disabilities, so I guess being human is a hard pass for me. Mind you, that's entirely subjective and so not useful to your discussion. The varied reasons people resort to cannibalism speak to the moral relativism of the question. The raw hunger of a shipwreck survivor, the cultural norm of eating your enemies to garner their strength, those have different moral weights to me, but who am I? I just know what I wouldn't like to do.
