Carrie Figdor (University of Iowa)
This paper will consider two fundamental questions that a non-anthropocentric psychology raises for our understanding of full moral status, which is traditionally based on cognition and not just the ability to feel pain. Without an anthropocentric presupposition about the nature of these capacities, we must reconsider the relation between moral status and cognition, and claim by humans to possess the highest status based on their cognitive capacities. I consider whether cognition should maintain its role as criterion of moral status, and the extent to which non-anthropocentrism changes how we assess and distribute moral status.
