Croatian Journal of Philosophy

Volume 11, Issue 2, 2011

Special Session on Mark Richard’s When Truth Gives Out

Julia Tanner
Pages 225-235

The Argument from Marginal Cases
is Species a Relevant Difference

Marginal humans are not rational yet we still think they are morally considerable. This is inconsistent with denying animals moral status on the basis of their irrationality. Therefore, either marginal humans and animals are both morally considerable or neither are. In this paper I consider a major objection to this argument: that species is a relevant difference between humans animals.