Citation

Author Website

http://jonathan-balcombe.com/

Thread

Irina Mikhalevich and Russell Powell, Minds without spines: Evolutionarily inclusive animal ethics

Abstract

Just as intuition, fueled by hubris, led us to exclude insects from moral consideration, so intuition can lead to the opposite conclusion. Observed insect behavior, combined with scientific support for insect consciousness summarized in Mikhalevich & Powell’s target article, and bolstered by the Precautionary Principle, all militate against completely denying moral status to insects.

Author Biography

Jonathan Balcombe is an ethologist and author of books including What a Fish Knows and Pleasurable Kingdom. Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World’s Most Successful Insects will be published in November 2020 by Penguin Books. Website

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1591