And you are hiding the complexity of “moral significance” in “similarity”. Is a statue of a human more similar to a human than a horse? Is a human corpse? What if you take out the brain and replace it with a life-support system that keeps the rest of the body alive?
Similarity of thinking, communication and behaviour makes very important part. So statues and corpses don’t rank high in my value list.
You may have a point, but similarity sounds a bit less vague to me than moral significance. At least it makes some restrictions: if objects A and B differ only in one quality, and A is human-like in this quality while B not so, then A is clearly more similar to humans. If A is more human-like in certain respects while B in other, more precise description is needed, but I can’t describe my preferences and their forming more precisely at the moment.
And you are hiding the complexity of “moral significance” in “similarity”. Is a statue of a human more similar to a human than a horse? Is a human corpse? What if you take out the brain and replace it with a life-support system that keeps the rest of the body alive?
Similarity of thinking, communication and behaviour makes very important part. So statues and corpses don’t rank high in my value list.
You may have a point, but similarity sounds a bit less vague to me than moral significance. At least it makes some restrictions: if objects A and B differ only in one quality, and A is human-like in this quality while B not so, then A is clearly more similar to humans. If A is more human-like in certain respects while B in other, more precise description is needed, but I can’t describe my preferences and their forming more precisely at the moment.