[latefordinner]

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and quite possibly have no awareness when they are "wronged".

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can you expand on this point? do you mean that if an animal is in an undesirable psychological state (say I'm a cruel bastard and I poke a dog's eye out with a stick) that it doesn't place any moral judgement on me ("this bastard is poking me with a stick for no reason") and simply responds in an instinctual way to the presence of an undesirable stimulus? therefore I don't have to be morally concerned with how I treat an animal because it doesn't have the cognitive capacity to place a moral judgement on me for having hurt it.

if so is there a biological line where this changes (okay to rip the tails off shrimp, not okay to light a gorilla on fire)? I can think of cases where it would be possible for another human being not to have any concept of the fact that it is being "wronged", simply that it is in pain. Is it morally okay if I cause that human being pain?