Levels of Morality

It is evident that not all people and non-humans receive the respect and justice that they deserve and demand. In Miller’s essay he concludes by saying that all humans and non-humans are entitled to degrees of consideration, respect, and justice. I agree with Miller that we need to have respect for everyone. It is clear that I am going to have more respect to a being of my kind because I have more in common. Evidently, non-humans are not capable of making their own decisions and doing things of their own, so we have lower standards for them. Non-humans do not have the capability to make moral judgments or know the difference between right and wrong. Although there are animal that seem to be highly intelligent, they do not understand when they are doing the “right” thing. I believe that animals respond and learn from rewards or punishment. A ‘smart’ animal is going to keep performing an action that rewards him/her with treats. Or, naturally a dog is going to be less likely to keep going into the trash if he/she is severely punished each time. Although it is proven that animals are intelligent beings, they are not at the same meta cognition level as humans.