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An­i­mal Ethics

TagLast edit: Sep 3, 2023, 11:34 PM by keltan

Animal Ethics relates to how we ought to treat Non-Human Animals. Current treatment of animals is potentially a moral emergency. Though these discussions are underway.

“There is no fundamental difference between humans and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”
- Darwin

The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but rather, ‘Can they suffer?’
- Jeremy Bentham

Animal Ethics covers a lot of ground, including but not limited to:
Animal Rights, Vegetarian/​Veganism, Diet, Effectiveness of these methodologies, Nutrition, Industrial Meat Production, Sentience, History, Animal Welfare, Speciesism, Other things?

(If your post relates to Non-Human Animals and their internal states, it probably belongs here)

For Further Info, Here is an introduction by Peter Singer

WARNING:
Those who play in these woods should dance with care, the forest is dense here, it is easy to trip on a root or your foot.

Unfortunately, there are few topics you less want to come up at a non-rational dinner party than Animal Ethics as it can be highly contentious.
Before engaging with this section of LessWrong, weather you believe Non-Human Animals deserve rights or not, please take a deep breath… and remember your training as a rationalist.

5. Mo­ral Value for Sen­tient An­i­mals? Alas, Not Yet

RogerDearnaleyDec 27, 2023, 6:42 AM
33 points
41 comments23 min readLW link

Some thoughts on veg­e­tar­i­anism and veganism

Richard_NgoFeb 14, 2022, 2:40 AM
37 points
23 comments4 min readLW link
(thinkingcomplete.blogspot.com)

Wire­head your Chickens

ShmiJun 20, 2018, 5:49 AM
86 points
53 comments2 min readLW link

Ar­gu­ments Against Speciesism

Lukas_GloorJul 28, 2013, 6:24 PM
30 points
476 comments9 min readLW link

An­i­mal welfare EA and per­sonal dietary options

Rob BensingerJan 5, 2022, 6:53 PM
38 points
32 comments3 min readLW link

Book Re­view: The Ethics of What We Eat

Jonah_OOct 18, 2021, 8:16 AM
20 points
1 comment11 min readLW link

Can a Ve­gan Diet Be Healthy? A Liter­a­ture Review

Erich_GrunewaldMar 12, 2021, 12:47 PM
27 points
0 comments11 min readLW link
(www.erichgrunewald.com)

There Meat Come A Scan­dal...

Nicholas / Heather KrossNov 7, 2021, 8:52 PM
31 points
7 comments3 min readLW link
(www.thinkingmuchbetter.com)

Ve­gans need to eat just enough Meat—em­per­i­cally eval­u­ate the min­i­mum am­mount of meat that max­i­mizes utility

Johannes C. MayerDec 22, 2024, 10:08 PM
55 points
35 comments3 min readLW link

Re­but­ting Every Ob­jec­tion To Giv­ing To The Shrimp Welfare Pro­ject

omnizoidNov 22, 2024, 4:12 PM
−1 points
0 comments8 min readLW link

Pre­limi­nary thoughts on moral weight

lukeprogAug 13, 2018, 11:45 PM
93 points
49 comments8 min readLW link2 reviews

Four Fo­cus Areas of Effec­tive Altruism

lukeprogJul 9, 2013, 12:59 AM
68 points
55 comments5 min readLW link

Effec­tive Altru­ism Through Ad­ver­tis­ing Vege­tar­i­anism?

Peter WildefordJun 12, 2013, 6:50 PM
29 points
553 comments14 min readLW link

Why Eat Less Meat?

Peter WildefordJul 23, 2013, 9:30 PM
75 points
505 comments6 min readLW link

When should an Effec­tive Altru­ist be veg­e­tar­ian?

KatjaGraceNov 22, 2014, 5:04 AM
35 points
81 comments9 min readLW link

Vegetarianism

RaemonDec 24, 2010, 4:57 AM
40 points
179 comments2 min readLW link

How Pet Own­ers Can Help Wild An­i­mals and The Environment

ozymandiasJun 1, 2018, 9:57 PM
7 points
1 comment3 min readLW link

Why I’m Not Vegan

jefftkApr 9, 2020, 1:00 PM
30 points
23 comments2 min readLW link
(www.jefftk.com)

An ar­gu­ment that an­i­mals don’t re­ally suffer

SolventJan 7, 2012, 9:07 AM
5 points
86 comments3 min readLW link

Richard Dawk­ins on vivi­sec­tion: “But can they suffer?”

XiXiDuJul 4, 2011, 4:56 PM
19 points
49 comments3 min readLW link

Valu­ing Sen­tience: Can They Suffer?

jefftkJul 29, 2013, 12:39 PM
9 points
29 comments1 min readLW link

Is skil­led hunt­ing un­eth­i­cal?

JamesFavilleFeb 17, 2018, 6:48 PM
6 points
18 comments12 min readLW link

AGI x An­i­mal Welfare: A High-EV Outreach Op­por­tu­nity?

simeon_cJun 28, 2023, 8:44 PM
29 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

Weigh­ing An­i­mal Worth

jefftkSep 28, 2023, 1:50 PM
25 points
11 comments2 min readLW link
(www.jefftk.com)

Killing the ants

Joe CarlsmithFeb 7, 2021, 11:17 PM
76 points
27 comments8 min readLW link1 review

Is top-down ve­g­anism un­eth­i­cal?

MalmesburyAug 22, 2021, 4:53 PM
13 points
15 comments4 min readLW link
(www.telescopic-turnip.net)

Quick gen­eral thoughts on suffer­ing and consciousness

Rob BensingerOct 30, 2021, 6:05 PM
38 points
50 comments21 min readLW link

Eat the cute an­i­mals instead

Andrew VlahosNov 21, 2021, 1:06 AM
−4 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

Tears Must Flow

sapphireNov 30, 2021, 6:37 PM
21 points
26 comments1 min readLW link

Mo­ral Weights of Six An­i­mals, Con­sid­er­ing View­point Uncer­tainty—Seeds of Science call for reviewers

rogersbaconMay 26, 2022, 1:36 PM
9 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

Some thoughts on Animals

nitinkhannaJul 9, 2022, 2:11 AM
2 points
6 comments2 min readLW link

Peter Singer’s first pub­lished piece on AI

FaiJul 15, 2022, 6:18 AM
20 points
5 comments1 min readLW link
(link.springer.com)

[Linkpost] Can lab-grown brains be­come con­scious?

Jack RAug 28, 2022, 5:45 PM
14 points
3 comments1 min readLW link

EA, Ve­ganism and Nega­tive An­i­mal Utilitarianism

Yair HalberstadtSep 4, 2022, 6:30 PM
10 points
12 comments1 min readLW link

In­sect Suffer­ing Is The Biggest Is­sue: What To Do About It

omnizoidApr 1, 2025, 12:51 PM
−12 points
9 comments9 min readLW link

Notes on Kindness

David GrossJul 3, 2021, 9:47 PM
19 points
1 comment18 min readLW link

Mike Dar­win on an­i­mal re­search, moral cow­ardice, and rea­son­ing in an un­car­ing universe

SynapticAug 25, 2012, 4:38 PM
36 points
15 comments7 min readLW link

In­fant Mor­tal­ity and the Ar­gu­ment from Life History

ozymandiasOct 4, 2017, 11:10 PM
13 points
4 comments3 min readLW link

Knowl­edge Base 3: Shop­ping ad­vi­sor and other uses of knowl­edge base about products

iwisOct 9, 2023, 11:53 AM
0 points
0 comments4 min readLW link

Public Opinion on AI Safety: AIMS 2023 and 2021 Summary

Sep 25, 2023, 6:55 PM
3 points
2 comments3 min readLW link
(www.sentienceinstitute.org)

Solu­tion to the two en­velopes prob­lem for moral weights

MichaelStJulesFeb 19, 2024, 12:15 AM
9 points
1 comment1 min readLW link

Can This Idea Dra­mat­i­cally Im­prove Effec­tive Ve­gan Ac­tivism?

NothingIsArtMar 19, 2023, 11:39 PM
−5 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

Arthro­pod (non) sentience

Arturo MaciasNov 25, 2024, 4:01 PM
9 points
8 comments4 min readLW link

Which meat to eat: CO₂ vs An­i­mal suffering

B JacobsMar 6, 2025, 12:37 PM
2 points
2 comments3 min readLW link
(bobjacobs.substack.com)

Su­per ad­di­tivity of consciousness

Arturo MaciasApr 29, 2024, 3:41 PM
−2 points
13 comments2 min readLW link

De­mand offsetting

paulfchristianoMar 21, 2021, 6:20 PM
133 points
41 comments5 min readLW link
(sideways-view.com)

In­ter­view with Chris­tine M. Kors­gaard: An­i­mal Ethics, Kan­ti­anism, Utilitarianism

Erich_GrunewaldMay 8, 2021, 11:44 AM
11 points
2 comments1 min readLW link
(www.erichgrunewald.com)

Which an­i­mals can suffer?

Valentin2026Jun 1, 2021, 3:42 AM
7 points
16 comments1 min readLW link

A Longter­mist case against Veganism

Connor TabarrokOct 20, 2022, 2:30 PM
−3 points
3 comments1 min readLW link

Gra­da­tions of moral weight

MichaelStJulesFeb 29, 2024, 11:08 PM
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link

I Really Don’t Un­der­stand Eliezer Yud­kowsky’s Po­si­tion on Consciousness

J BostockOct 29, 2021, 11:09 AM
104 points
120 comments4 min readLW link

Ap­ply to be­come a Fu­turekind AI Fa­cil­i­ta­tor or Men­tor (dead­line: April 10)

superbeneficiaryMar 26, 2025, 3:47 PM
4 points
0 comments1 min readLW link
(forum.effectivealtruism.org)

Se­quence overview: Welfare and moral weights

MichaelStJulesAug 15, 2024, 4:22 AM
7 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

Sen­tience In­sti­tute 2023 End of Year Summary

michael_delloNov 27, 2023, 12:11 PM
11 points
0 comments5 min readLW link
(www.sentienceinstitute.org)

AI Mo­ral Align­ment: The Most Im­por­tant Goal of Our Generation

Ronen BarMar 27, 2025, 6:04 PM
2 points
0 comments8 min readLW link
(forum.effectivealtruism.org)

Tak­ing Into Ac­count Sen­tient Non-Hu­mans in AI Am­bi­tious Value Learn­ing: Sen­tien­tist Co­her­ent Ex­trap­o­lated Volition

Adrià MoretDec 2, 2023, 2:07 PM
26 points
31 comments42 min readLW link

Which an­i­mals re­al­ize which types of sub­jec­tive welfare?

MichaelStJulesFeb 27, 2024, 7:31 PM
4 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] Am I eth­i­cally obli­gated to ex­tend the life of my dog with life-ex­ten­sion treat­ments about to hit the mar­ket?

TrudosKudosDec 11, 2023, 7:41 PM
−3 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

The Ethics of Eat­ing Seafood: A Ra­tional Discussion

Jonathan GrantMar 15, 2023, 5:55 PM
1 point
2 comments2 min readLW link

Against Dog Ownership

Ben PaceMar 23, 2020, 9:17 AM
54 points
27 comments4 min readLW link
(dormin.org)

Creat­ing Welfare Biol­ogy: A Re­search Proposal

ozymandiasNov 16, 2017, 7:06 PM
20 points
5 comments4 min readLW link

Map­ping Fun The­ory onto the challenges of eth­i­cal foie gras

HonoreDBDec 7, 2011, 8:47 PM
49 points
62 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] What are some posthu­man­ist/​more-than-hu­man ap­proaches to defi­ni­tions of in­tel­li­gence and agency? Par­tic­u­larly in ap­pli­ca­tion to AI re­search.

Eli HitonApr 9, 2024, 9:52 PM
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link

Un­der­wa­ter Tor­ture Cham­bers: The Hor­ror Of Fish Farming

omnizoidJul 26, 2023, 12:27 AM
83 points
50 comments10 min readLW link1 review
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