Consciousness is not the Key to Moral Standing

Which creatures have moral standing? Precisely those that are conscious, says nearly everyone . In this paper I shall argue that this is wrong. The concept of consciousness is ill-suited to delimit the class of moral patients—that is, creatures with moral standing, creatures with moral interests. The concept of consciousness is ill-suited to define this moral category not because it focuses on the wrong thing, but because it focuses so badly. It is a loose categorization that serves our purposes well enough when we are dealing with human beings. But it fails to draw clear lines once we move beyond the human realm to consider various non-human creatures. In particular, it fails to draw clear lines in cases where the moral lines are themselves clear. I take this to show that the moral facts must be grounded in something other than facts about consciousness.