Clearly, below-human-average intelligence is still worth something … so is there a cutoff point or what?
(I think you’re onto something with “intelligence”, but since intelligence varies, shouldn’t how much we care vary too? Shouldn’t there be some sort of sliding scale?)
Thinking through my mental landscape, I find that in most cases I value children (slightly) above adults. I think that this is more a matter of potential than anything else. I also put some value on an unborn human child, which could reasonably be said to have no intelligence at all (especially early on).
So, given that, I think that I put some fairly significant value on potential future intelligence as well as on present intelligence.
But, as you point out, below-human intelligence is still worth something.
...
I don’t think there’s really a firm cutoff point, such that one side is “worthless” and the other side is “worthy”. It’s a bit like a painting.
At one time, there’s a blank canvas, a paintbrush, and a pile of tubes of paint. At this point, it is not a painting. At a later time, there’s a painting. But there isn’t one particular moment, one particular stroke of the brush, when it goes from “not-a-painting” to “painting”. Similarly for intelligence; there isn’t any particular moment when it switches automatically from “worthless” to “worthy”.
If I’m going to eat meat, I have to find the point at which I’m willing to eat it by some other means than administering I.Q. tests (especially as, when I’m in the supermarket deciding whether or not to purchase a steak, it’s a bit late to administer any tests to the cow). Therefore, I have to use some sort of proxy measurement with correlation to intelligence instead. For the moment, i.e. until some other species is proven to have human-level or near-human intelligence, I’m going to continue to use ‘species’ as my proxy measurement.
Clearly, below-human-average intelligence is still worth something … so is there a cutoff point or what?
(I think you’re onto something with “intelligence”, but since intelligence varies, shouldn’t how much we care vary too? Shouldn’t there be some sort of sliding scale?)
That’s a very good question.
I don’t know.
Thinking through my mental landscape, I find that in most cases I value children (slightly) above adults. I think that this is more a matter of potential than anything else. I also put some value on an unborn human child, which could reasonably be said to have no intelligence at all (especially early on).
So, given that, I think that I put some fairly significant value on potential future intelligence as well as on present intelligence.
But, as you point out, below-human intelligence is still worth something.
...
I don’t think there’s really a firm cutoff point, such that one side is “worthless” and the other side is “worthy”. It’s a bit like a painting.
At one time, there’s a blank canvas, a paintbrush, and a pile of tubes of paint. At this point, it is not a painting. At a later time, there’s a painting. But there isn’t one particular moment, one particular stroke of the brush, when it goes from “not-a-painting” to “painting”. Similarly for intelligence; there isn’t any particular moment when it switches automatically from “worthless” to “worthy”.
If I’m going to eat meat, I have to find the point at which I’m willing to eat it by some other means than administering I.Q. tests (especially as, when I’m in the supermarket deciding whether or not to purchase a steak, it’s a bit late to administer any tests to the cow). Therefore, I have to use some sort of proxy measurement with correlation to intelligence instead. For the moment, i.e. until some other species is proven to have human-level or near-human intelligence, I’m going to continue to use ‘species’ as my proxy measurement.