Sentience and Sensibility: A Conversation about Moral Philosophy

David Gordon, Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Silliman (philosophy, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts) presents an engaging introduction to moral philosophy written in the form of a dialog between “Manuel Kant” and “Harriet Taylor.” These characters develop a theory of value incrementalism according to which the value of an object depends on how far it has progressed toward self-consciousness. Thus, plants are more valuable than stones, lower animals are more valuable than plants, and higher animals are more valuable than lower animals. Human beings, with full self-consciousness, rank highest. Silliman does not mean by this that humans have no duties to entities lower on the scale; to the contrary, he believes everything show more has “moral considerability” as its level of complexity warrants. Working from this theory, Silliman discusses abortion, environmentalism, and vegetarianism. He posits that morality is based on human sentiments-it is not “out there in the world” completely independent of human beings. By no means, though, does this imply moral relativism. Valuable supplementary reading in courses on ethics; recommended for larger collections. show less