Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Standing 6
1.1 Standing and Status 6
1.2 Sentience 10
1.3 Agency 16
1.4 Agency without Sentience 23
1.5 Welfare and Standing 30
2. Unitarianism 37
2.1 Unitarianism 37
2.2 The Greater Harm 42
2.3 Comparing Lives 45
2.4 Hierarchy 52
3. The Argument from Distribution 58
3.1 Distributive Principles 58
3.2 The Argument from Distribution 62
3.3 Replies 69
4. Hierarchy and the Value of Outcomes 79
4.1 Hierarchy in Distribution 79
4.2 Problems for Priority 87
4.3 Well-Being 96
4.4 Dismissing the View 101
4.5 The Status Adjusted Value of Well-Being 108
5. Status 112
5.1 Grounds of Status 112
5.2 Individualism 117
5.3 Which Capacities? 121
5.4 Potential 130
5.5 Modal Status 137
6. Worries about Hierarchy 146
6.1 Elitism 146
6.2 Superior Beings 149
6.3 Marginal Cases 156
6.4 Normal Variation 164
7. Deontology 170
7.1 Consequentialism and Deontology 170
7.2 Absolutist Deontology 174
7.3 Moderate Deontology 179
7.4 Some Calculations 184
8. Restricted Deontology 191
8.1 Excluding Animals from Deontology 191
8.2 Autonomy 194
8.3 Resisting the Argument 201
8.4 Dichotomous Properties 207
9. Hierarchical Deontology 215
9.1 Weaker Rights 215
9.2 Thresholds 219
9.3 Meeting the Threshold 231
9.4 Other Principles 238
10. Defense 248
10.1 The Right to Self-Defense 248
10.2 Defending Animals 252
10.3 Defending Against Animals 258
10.4 Defending Animals Against Animals 267
10.5 More on Proportionality 274
11. Limited Hierarchy 279
11.1 A Suitable Step Function 279
11.2 Practical Realism 284
11.3 The View that Emerges 292
11.4 Pretense 299
11.5 How to Count Animals 302
References 305
Index 307