Speciesism: the widely held belief that the human species is inherently superior to other species and so has rights or privileges that are denied to other sentient animals.
Speciesism is a term coined by Richard Ryder in 1970. The word refers to
the widely held belief that the human species is inherently superior to
other species and so has rights or privileges that are denied to other
sentient animals.
'Speciesism' can also be used to describe the oppressive behaviour, cruelty,
prejudice and discrimination that are associated with such a belief. In a
more restricted sense, speciesism can refer to such beliefs and behaviours
if they are based upon the species-difference alone, as if such a difference
is, in itself, a justification.
Ryder used the term as a deliberate 'wake-up call' to challenge the morality
of current practices where nonhuman animals are being exploited in research,
in farming, domestically and in the wild, and he consciously drew the
parallel with the terms racism and sexism. Ryder pointed out that all such
prejudices are based upon physical differences that are morally irrelevant.
He suggested that the moral implication of Darwinism is that all sentient
animals, including humans, should have a similar moral status.
In his first privately published leaflet entitled Speciesism, Ryder asked a
number of rhetorical questions: Since Darwin, scientists have agreed that
there is no 'magical' essential difference between human and other animals,
biologically- speaking. Why, then, do we make an almost total distinction
morally? If all organisms are on one physical continuum, then we should also
be on the same moral continuum.
The word 'species', like the word 'race', is not precisely definable. Lions
and tigers can interbreed. Under special laboratory conditions it may soon
prove possible to mate a gorilla with a professor of biology. Will the hairy
offspring be kept in a cage or a cradle?
It is customary to describe Neanderthal Man as a separate species from
ourselves, one especially equipped for Ice-Age survival. Yet most
archaeologists now believe that this nonhuman creature practised ritual
burial and possessed a larger brain than we do. Suppose that the elusive
Abominable Snowman, when caught, turns out to be the last survivor of this
Neanderthal species; would we give him a seat at the UN or would we implant
electrodes in his super-human brain?
A second edition of this leaflet, illustrated and with the name and address
of David Wood added, was circulated around the colleges of Oxford University
where it was seen by the young Australian philosopher Peter Singer.
A little earlier, the novelist Brigid Brophy, having read some of Ryderís
letters about the treatment of animals published in the Daily Telegraph
(e.g. 7th April and 3rd May 1969), introduced Ryder to the Oxford
philosophers John Harris and Rosling and Stanley Godlovitch who invited
Ryder to contribute a chapter on Animal Experimentation to their forthcoming
collection of essays entitled Animals, Men and Morals, subsequently
published by Gollancz in 1971. In this contribution Ryder bases his moral
objection to painful animal experimentation upon his principle of
'speciesism'.
This historic book was subsequently reviewed by Peter Singer who then
approached Richard Ryder to find out more about his ideas on the subject.
Singer invited Ryder to share the authorship of his forthcoming book, Animal
Liberation. Ryder declined, but gave much research material to Singer that
had already been used by Ryder for his book Victims of Science (1975). Peter
Singer has frequently acknowledged his debt to Ryder for the term speciesism
which Singer, as a Utilitarian, has used skillfully. The term is now in most
English dictionaries and is much employed by philosophers.
Ryder points out that there is no absolute barrier between species and that
transgenic animals and so-called chimeras contain the genes of several
species. How would we treat hominids of a different species if some turned
up, he asks, or aliens from outer space? The latter may be highly
intelligent, autonomous and of a different species, but should intelligence
or autonomy or species affect moral status? Suffering, surely is the
essential feature.
Above all, Ryder and other anti-speciesists have challenged the usual
Judaeo-Christian assumption of Western societies that the human-being has
some semi-divine status. 'I have never yet heard' Ryder has said 'any
rational argument in support of speciesism; except, of course, sheer bloody
self-interest'.
Also read Painism - Dr Richard D Ryder
Dr Richard D Ryder is a British psychologist and philosopher, who invented the concept of speciesism in Oxford in 1970 while co-initiating the modern animal rights movement. Ryder went on to become a leading campaigner for animal protection, modernising the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) as its Chairman, and helping to put animals into politics internationally. He also became Director of the Political Animal Lobby, founder of Eurogroup for Animals and first Chairman of the Liberal Democrats Animal Welfare Group. Ryder refers to speciesism in all his main writings.