As mass extinctions loom, these philosophers could help us rediscover our place among other animals

By Rachael Wiseman, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Liverpool
Clare Mac Cumhaill, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Durham University

Children think that pigs are as deserving of kindness as dogs and cats, and as readily condemn cruelty to hamsters as cruelty to other children, a recent study has shown. The moral hierarchy of animals – with humans at the top, followed by pets, farm animals and pests – that governs much of adult thinking is not, it seems, an innate one. Despite being born in 1919, this result would not have surprised the late philosopher Mary Midgley.

When raising her own children, Midgley noticed that infants…

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