Read Online The Four Walls of My Freedom by Donna Thomson - Free Book Online

so on and so forth. …Then you said that “we can’t wave our hands and then say and so on, because there is so much more to what it is to be human.” You’ve said that a couple of times. So I am just wanting to ask you: Well, can you tell us some of these morally significant psychological capacities in which you think that human beings, and let’s talk about real ones, so the ones who are “profoundly mentally retarded,” to use that term, in which they are superior to…you sort of said, maybe chimpanzees and great apes are different…so let’s say in which they are superior to pigs or dogs or animals of that sort. (Eva Kittay responds by shaking her head.) It’s a factual question. You can’t just shake your head. You have to put up or stop saying that.
    Eva Kittay: [Y]ou asked me how is Sesha different from a — what did you say — a pig? And [when I first shook my head] you said, well, it’s a factual question, “put up or shut up.” The first thing I have to do when you ask me that question, is I have to get over…. a feeling of nausea. It’s not that I’m not able to answer it intellectually, it’s that I can’t even get to the point emotionally, where I can answer that question. (Pause) Most of the time. When I say you can’t just wave your hand and say “and so on,” it’s because there is so much to being human. There’s the touch, there’s the feel, there’s the hug, there’s the smile…there are so many ways of interacting. I don’t think you need philosophy for this. You need a very good writer . …This is why I just reject…[the]…idea that you [should] base moral standing on a list of cognitive capacities, or any kind of capacities. Because what it is to be human is not a bundle of capacities. It’s a way that you are , a way you are in the world, a way you are with another. And I could adore my pig; I could dote on my pig. It would be something entirely different. And if you can’t get that; if you can’t understand that, then I’m not sure exactly what it is that you want to hear from that I could tell you. …I’ll keep trying because I think this is very important.
    Jeff McMahan: Let me say something on behalf of Peter’s [Singer’s] point of view here. Peter has not said anything to deny the significance of a mother’s relations to her own child. Nothing as far as I can tell. The question here is a question about what moral demands there are on other people. And the fact that you, Eva, have a relation with your daughter doesn’t necessarily give other people the same set of reasons that you have to respond to your daughter in certain ways and to treat your daughter in certain ways. The question is: what is it about people like your daughter that makes moral demands on other people that nonhuman animals can make on any of us. That is the question that Peter is asking. He’s not denying that you have a special relation to your daughter and that that is very significant for you in your life, significant for her, and so on, and that that’s true of many other people. …You know, Peter and I didn’t come here to hurt anybody’s feelings. We’re here to try to understand things better. I’m trying very hard not to say anything offensive, something hurtful. I’m profoundly averse to making people miserable.
    Eva Kittay: I know you’re not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. I know Peter isn’t trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s not what it’s about. For me, it’s not what I’m experiencing, it’s what your writings mean for public policy. That’s what concerns me. And that’s not just about my daughter. 14
    Peter Singer and Jeff McMahan have teamed up to defend the rights of animals at the expense of some people. Using intelligence as the criteria for