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    Utilitarian frameworks can aggregate welfare across senti... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A wider consequentialist approach may be more compatible with environmental ethics than utilitarian ethics.

    Utilitarian frameworks can aggregate welfare across sentient non-human animals, already extending moral concern well beyond anthropocentric limits.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Sentient animals demonstrably experience pain, fear, and suffering comparable to humans, creating prima facie moral reasons to count their welfare.
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    • 2.Utilitarianism's aggregative logic is neutral about species membership, so excluding animals requires arbitrary special pleading for humans.
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    • 3.Including animal welfare in moral calculations has already motivated welfare improvements (factory farming reforms, conservation), proving practical value.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Animal suffering is qualitatively different from human suffering due to human self-awareness, future planning, and social relationships utilitarians cannot measure.
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    • 2.Aggregating across species creates intractable comparison problems—we cannot reliably weigh chicken suffering against human suffering to guide policy.
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    • 3.Utilitarian aggregation can justify harming humans if total animal welfare gains exceed human losses, suggesting the framework needs non-utilitarian constraints.
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    Environmental Ethics1 linked

    Related

    A wider consequentialist approach may be more compatible with environmental ethi...Aggregating across species creates intractable comparison problems—we cannot rel...Animal suffering is qualitatively different from human suffering due to human se...Including animal welfare in moral calculations has already motivated welfare imp...
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    Sentient animals demonstrably experience pain, fear, and suffering comparable to...Utilitarian aggregation can justify harming humans if total animal welfare gains...Utilitarianism's aggregative logic is neutral about species membership, so exclu...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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