naa a22 4500 510789617 CHVBK 20180411083315.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11406-013-9420-y doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11406-013-9420-y Bruers Stijn Department of Philosophy and Moral Science, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium aut Speciesism as a Moral Heuristic [Elektronische Daten] [Stijn Bruers] In the last decade, the study of moral heuristics has gained in importance. I argue that we can consider speciesism as a moral heuristic: an intuitive rule of thumb that substitutes a target attribute (that is difficult to detect, e.g. "having rationality”) for a heuristic attribute (that is easier to detect, e.g. "looking like a human being”). This speciesism heuristic misfires when applied to some atypical humans such as the mentally disabled, giving them rights although they lack rationality. But I argue that it is not necessarily irrational or inconsistent to hold on to this heuristic rule, because we have to take time and knowledge constraints, uncertainty aversion and emotional costs into account. However, this "heuristic defense” of speciesism uses a target attribute (rationality) that has implications of disrespect towards some atypical humans. Therefore, based on notions of impartiality and compassion, I argue for a morally better target attribute: sentience ("having a sense of well-being”). "Being a vertebrate” is suitable as a corresponding heuristic attribute because it is easy to detect and has a strong correlation with the target attribute of sentience. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2013 Speciesism nationallicence Animal ethics nationallicence Moral heuristics nationallicence Slippery slope argument nationallicence Argument from marginal cases nationallicence Philosophia Springer Netherlands 41/2(2013-06-01), 489-501 0048-3893 41:2<489 2013 41 11406 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-013-9420-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-013-9420-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Bruers Stijn Department of Philosophy and Moral Science, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Philosophia Springer Netherlands 41/2(2013-06-01), 489-501 0048-3893 41:2<489 2013 41 11406 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer