Speciesism

last updated: June 3, 2001

What is it?

Speciesism is discrimination, usually with demeaning results, between individual persons due to a perceived difference in type, or species. Charles Darwin, author of Origin of Species (1859), observed that he used the term simply to denote a category of convenience. Darwin wrote, "It is immaterial for us whether a multitude of doubtful forms be called species or sub-species or varieties... The mere existence of individual variability and of some few well-marked varieties, though a necessary foundation of the work, helps us but little in understanding how species arise in nature." The term "speciesism" was first coined by Richard Ryder, who noted that discriminating between sentient individuals due to perceived species is arbitrarily divisive in the same way sex or race discrimination is.

For an explanation of "species" as blending points on a continuum, and the relevance the idea has to ape communities, refer to Richard Dawkins, "Gaps in the Mind," The Great Ape Project (Cavalieri & Singer, eds. 1993) pages 80-87, linked below.

Debate

• Science and Self-Doubt
  Reason Magazine article by Frederick K. Goodwin and Adrian R. Morrison / October 2000

Legal Literature

• Animal Rights: Current Debates & New Directions
• The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity
• Speciesism