Re: moral patienthood, I understand the Sam Harris position (paraphrased by him here as “Morality and values depend on the existence of conscious minds—and specifically on the fact that such minds can experience various forms of well-being and suffering in this universe.”) as saying that anything else that supposedly matters, only matters because conscious minds care about it. Like, a painting has no more intrinsic value in the universe than any other random arrangement of atoms like a rock; its value stems purely from conscious minds caring about it. Same with concepts like beauty and virtue and biodiversity and anything else that’s not directly about conscious minds.
And re: caring more about one’s close circle: well, everyone in your close circle has their own close circle they care about, and if you repeat that exercise often enough, the vast majority of people in the world are in someone’s close circle.
Re: moral patienthood, I understand the Sam Harris position (paraphrased by him here as “Morality and values depend on the existence of conscious minds—and specifically on the fact that such minds can experience various forms of well-being and suffering in this universe.”) as saying that anything else that supposedly matters, only matters because conscious minds care about it. Like, a painting has no more intrinsic value in the universe than any other random arrangement of atoms like a rock; its value stems purely from conscious minds caring about it. Same with concepts like beauty and virtue and biodiversity and anything else that’s not directly about conscious minds.
And re: caring more about one’s close circle: well, everyone in your close circle has their own close circle they care about, and if you repeat that exercise often enough, the vast majority of people in the world are in someone’s close circle.