What are our duties to non-human organisms?
Most people have the intuition that we have a responsibility to protect endangered species. And most people feel that this is because of duties to the species themselves. But–without appealing to duties to future generations–it has been surprisingly difficult to voice defensible reasons that we have stronger obligations to protect organisms of endangered species (like tigers) than organisms of common, weedy species (like rats). But I’ve got a theory that provides just such a reason, based on obligations to treat other organisms as they appear to “want” to be treated.
