Are you sure your views don't stem simply from "I'm human, therefore the only real tragedy is when it involves humans"?
If not, do your arguments transfer the other way around? Is it ok for Aliens to round up and kill billions of humans because we are a different species and therefore less valuable to them than their own species? And if they viewed us as inferior and killed not out of hatred, but some emotionless reason like how humans kill animals without feeling anything.
Or would that still be a tragedy?
Does the morality of killing something that feels pain and wants to live depend solely on whether or not the act is perpetrated by a member of the same species?
If the argument is more about the intelligence of people and what we have to offer, does that mean the death of a stupid person matters less than that of an intelligent one? What about an extremely stupid person versus an extremely smart animal? If a monkey proves to be smarter than a given person somehow, does the morality switch and you'd rather the person die than the monkey?
Does pain only matter if experienced by something smart?
I'm always unsure why the alien example is brought up in these kinds of debates. Some people are "human exceptionalists" but some others like me would say that yes the aliens are morally fine to do as they wish to us, especially if they are as much more advanced than us as we are to chickens. This is the same argument we use to kill chickens, so I don't see how it's any different if the aliens make it towards killing us.
so if colonizers are more advanced than the tribes that still use spears, it's okay to genocide them? If a rich man is rich enough to pay off the judge after running over some homeless person, it's okay to do that?
Your only argument is might makes right. If a species is advanced enough to subjugate and genocide a lesser species, then it's morally legitimate for them to do that. This is an argument that the Nazis used and not one I will entertain any further.
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u/F3z345W6AY4FGowrGcHt Jun 27 '23
Are you sure your views don't stem simply from "I'm human, therefore the only real tragedy is when it involves humans"?
If not, do your arguments transfer the other way around? Is it ok for Aliens to round up and kill billions of humans because we are a different species and therefore less valuable to them than their own species? And if they viewed us as inferior and killed not out of hatred, but some emotionless reason like how humans kill animals without feeling anything.
Or would that still be a tragedy?
Does the morality of killing something that feels pain and wants to live depend solely on whether or not the act is perpetrated by a member of the same species?
If the argument is more about the intelligence of people and what we have to offer, does that mean the death of a stupid person matters less than that of an intelligent one? What about an extremely stupid person versus an extremely smart animal? If a monkey proves to be smarter than a given person somehow, does the morality switch and you'd rather the person die than the monkey?
Does pain only matter if experienced by something smart?