Moral Weight Series

How can we compare the capacity for welfare and moral status across different groups of animals?

The posts in this sequence are meant to improve the way resources are allocated within the effective animal advocacy movement, as well as between human- and nonhuman-animal-focused cause areas.

  • The first post outlines the conceptual framework for the rest of the series, and summarizes different theories of welfare and moral status.
  • The second post compares two methodologies for measuring capacity for welfare and moral status.
  • The third post describes the subjective experience of time, why it matters, and why it’s plausible that there are morally significant differences in this experience across species.
  • The fourth post examines critical flicker-fusion frequency as a potential proxy for the subjective experience of time.
  • The fifth post summarizes the previous two and presents my conclusions.