talk of their right to vote. There is no reason why either
Women’s Liberation or Animal Liberation should get
involved in such nonsense. The extension of the basic
principle of equality from one group to another does not
implythatwemusttreatbothgroupsinexactlythesameway,
orgrantexactlythesamerightstobothgroups.Whetherwe
shoulddosowilldependonthenatureofthemembersofthe
twogroups.Thebasicprincipleofequalitydoesnotrequire
equaloridenticaltreatment;itrequiresequalconsideration.
Equalconsiderationfordifferentbeingsmayleadtodifferent
treatment and different rights.
SothereisadifferentwayofreplyingtoTaylor’sattemptto
parodythecaseforwomen’srights,awaythatdoesnotdeny
the obvious differences between human beings and
nonhumansbutgoesmoredeeplyintothequestionofequality
andconcludesbyfindingnothingabsurdintheideathatthe
basicprincipleofequalityappliestoso-calledbrutes.Atthis
pointsuchaconclusionmayappearodd;butifweexamine
more deeply the basis on which our opposition to
discrimination on grounds of race or sex
ultimately rests, we will see that we would be on shaky
groundifweweretodemandequalityforblacks,women,and
other groups of oppressed humans while denying equal
considerationtononhumans.Tomakethisclearweneedto
see,first,exactlywhyracismand sexismarewrong.When
wesaythatallhumanbeings,whatevertheirrace,creed,or
sex,areequal,what isitthatweareasserting?Thosewho
wishtodefendhierarchical,inegalitariansocietieshaveoften
pointedoutthatbywhatevertestwechooseitsimplyisnot
truethatallhumansareequal.Likeitornotwemustfacethe
fact that humans come in different shapes and sizes; they
come with different moral capacities, different intellectual