Posted: Mar 06, 2012 4:12 pm
Peter Singer, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris (not officially a philosopher, but close enough) and there are many others who I just cannot think of. One guy wrote a column for The Stone (NYT) and said we should wipe out any carnivorous species in nature if the consequences would not be exploding prey population that ultimately ends up getting wiped out anyway. You could argue this is pointless since almost all carnivores limit a prey population, but the point, which I think wa a brilliant one, was that nature only has value in so far as it contributes to the wellbeing of sentient beings. There is not some "mother nature" that we must protect for its own sake.
A critical point, I think. Wish I could remember his name...
A critical point, I think. Wish I could remember his name...