Speciesism and The Arrogant Ape


3:59 PM Tuesday.

Greetings, Craig and Matthew:

You've both really got me thinking. I am so impressed by your feedback. Here is an update since I published Staying Centered in the Vegan Christian Community While I Pray for My Mom.

I spent the morning at the medical center with my mom. Then when we got home, I listened to a bit of a talk by Magda Teter at the Boston College Center for Christian-Jewish Learning about her book titled Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism. I fell asleep wondering if we should add speciesism to Teter's thesis, and if it's all part of what we might call the shadow side of the Torah. Do we need to consider the shadow side of the Torah before we even get to the problem of Christian supersessionism and the modern construction of a European white Christian master race (which of course we must now deconstruct, either by abolishing the white-BIPOC dichotomy altogether, or by becoming white antiracist allies)? The closest I can get at the moment is that we are growing into some kind of interfaith vegan world federalism with a new Jerusalem at its spiritual center. Pope Leo XIV is hoping to facilitate a major gathering in Jerusalem in 2033 CE to commemorate the Atonement. It is stunning to contemplate. I wonder how the Jewish and Muslim worlds will feel about it. If it happens, I think the vegan perspective should be well represented. Or maybe the vegan Christian theological movement should plan its own convocation. Online, perhaps, to save on climate emissions. With this and more weighing on my mind, I fell asleep for a long nap.

When I woke up shortly after 1 PM, I was delighted to see some emails from Matthew. Here are the pertinent passages (thanks so much for the permission to quote your compassionate genius, Matthew):

I enjoyed reading the conversation between you and Craig. I often use the airplane pilot analogy too! I'm so sorry to hear about your mom BTW. How are you feeling regarding her diagnosis?

You mentioned you're a 'speciesist vegan theologian and philosopher.' I think that can accord with animal rights. I think to determine if one is a speciesist, they would have to ask, 'Do I think that humans are intrinsically more valuable than animals in every possible situation?' or 'Are humans so exceptional that they deserve far more ethical consideration than every other species?' I don't think one needs to be completely egalitarian to be an animal rights activist or a vegan. It's like what Ed Winters famously said, 'You don't have to believe that animals are more important than humans. You just have to believe that an animal's life is more important than a sandwich.' 
    
After taking Matthew's question and insights into consideration, I spent the next few hours doing some research into speciesism. It was humbling and a bit discouraging to realize just how poorly read I am as a vegan. Then finally after a couple of hours the discouragement passed, and I settled more joyfully into the task hand. Eventually, around 4 PM, I realized it was time to summarize my findings in a blog post for you both. 

The first thing I should say is that I am tremendously grateful for the high quality of care my mom is receiving from Albany Med, and I am tremendously impressed by my mom's resilience in the face of her diagnosis. I am also wondering if I should have been harder on her about switching over to a plant-based diet precisely to prevent a recurrence of her breast cancer. I guess, in retrospect, I couldn't have been any harder. Whether I was right and she was wrong about the case for veganism back in the 2010s when I was militant and manic about trying to convert her, I am too impressed by the many other ways that my mom shows strength and compassion to think I should bring it up with her now. And what is more, I don't want to tell her that this is the time to change her diet, precisely when she most needs her traditional comfort foods. I am keeping my mouth shut, and my heart open. 

The breast surgeon didn't say anything about a plant-based diet, my mom didn't ask, and I didn't bring it up. But you're skillful question, Matthew, has initiated a really important internal conversation that I wouldn't have had otherwise. My psychotherapist is not a vegan, so I don't know that she can truly understand what it's like being in this situation. I do know my therapist will help me grow through it all the same. She's really good. Maybe it will help if I use the "meat = cigarette" analogy with her when we talk about it in our next session? Is it finally time to put away the meat cigarettes, Mom? No, that just seems so cruel. I don't know that eating a vegan diet would have prevented my mom from getting breast cancer again, and she is eighty-two anyway. Who am I to play God-as-Judge in her life? I don't know what God is thinking with this one. Does God want me to convert her and the Albany Medical Center breast care system to standing orders for a compassionate, plant-based diet prescription? Ten years ago, I would have been angry at "the system" and I would have made everything worse by arguing. Now I think God doesn't want me to argue, but just to do my best at processing my feelings in therapy, in religious support settings, and on my blog. This really helps. Instead of seeing my mom as an opponent in a partisan intergenerational animal rights argument, I can focus more generously - and more accurately - on the other dimensions of her humanity, grit and grace. All things considered, she is a profoundly inspirational mentor for me as I look ahead to my own early 80s in the net zero 2050s (God-willing).    

The second thing I should say is that I have come to realize that I am not really all that well read in what we might call the undergraduate vegan ethics curriculum (as I mentioned earlier). Here is a list of vegan ethics resources that I HAVEN'T read:

  • The Vegan Society at ISSUU (1944-Onward)
  • Ethics and Animals: An Introduction (Gruen)
  • The Animal Ethics Reader (Armstrong and Botzler)
  • Animals and Ethics (Taylor)
  • Ethical Vegetarianism and Veganism (Linzey and Linzey)
  • Animals, Men and Morals (1971 edited volume that includes the Ryder essay coining the term "Speciesism")
  • Animal Liberation (Singer)
  • The Case for Animal Rights (Regan)
  • Animals, Property and the Law (Francione)
  • Rain Without Thunder (Francione)
  • Justice for Animals (Nussbaum)
  • Speciesism, Painism and Happiness (Ryder) 

Shouldn't I have at least read the November 1944 issue of the Vegan Society newsletter; one of the next four books in my above list; the Ryder essay in Animals, Men and Morals; Singer's Animal Liberation; Regan's The Case for Animal Rights; and Francione's Rain Without Thunder?

Against this backdrop, I think I might be coming into this literature with an interest in the utilitarian rejection of speciesism by Singer, which is in turn partly a response to the essay on speciesism in the seminal 1971 volume featuring Ryder. I am particularly interested right now in a debate within the utilitarian school between Singer and Kagan. It seems that Kagan has responded to Singer with a defense of speciesism in a 2015 paper ("What's Wrong with Speciesism?") and later in a book titled How to Count Animals, More or Less (2019). Actually, at this point I don't know if Kagan is defending speciesism or rejecting the construct altogether. I think, though, that I am entering into this whole question of speciesism with a notion that there is indeed a hierarchy of sentient, rational, compassionate being. But maybe I am completely wrong about this.

Christine Webb, a Harvard primatologist, has recently published what looks like it could be an important work called The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters. I am very intrigued by her thesis. It feels like a necessary humbling of my sinful human pride, even as it's possible there is a seed of the Messiah in me that wants to defend human exceptionalism on the basis of Matthew 6:26!

Well, this is a long message, and I don't want to keep you both any longer. If you have any follow-up thoughts or essential reading recommendations, feel free to share. Otherwise, it might be a while before I write you both again. Or it might be tomorrow! I am trying to cover a lot of bases on my blog, and I am not sure when I will next be moved and able to revisit this topic.

When I do, I am thinking that I should probably begin with the inaugural 1944 issue of the Vegan Society newsletter (or perhaps turn my attention all the way back to the foundation of the parent Vegetarian Society in Ramsgate, England, in 1847), and then proceed to Animals, Men and Morals. Google Gemini says that the latter was prepared by the Oxford Group, which I should probably know more about:


But one or both of you might steer me in a different direction as I try to correct the deficiencies in my undergraduate vegan ethics curriculum.

Please don't feel any pressure or rush to respond.

Thank you so much for your continued encouragement! 

Jonathan.

End 9:55 PM.

Addendum Friday, 5 December 2025 at 7:19 PM. Brilliant and much appreciated correspondence received from Matthew King:

I loved reading your post, Jonathan! That was wonderful. The frustration you have over your mom's diagnosis is understandable and completely relatable. My dad had a double bypass three years ago. Although he has improved his diet from heavy meat and cheese, he still eats a lot of meat and cheese. My mom humorously states at holidays, 'your dad is heading for another cath-lab visit.' I've accepted the fact that all you can really do is educate people and then it's up to them to make the right decisions. Just like with you, you told your mom about the dangers and you have no further responsibility outside of that. You tried your best by simply giving her the information. That's all we can really ever do, unfortunately. 

Humans function a lot like animals, and as you and I have noted before, that Darwin might have had a point, lol. Animals follow instincts and can't really do much to change their constitution and nature. Humans do the same, generally speaking. Which ties into the aspect of human exceptionalism. Can humans claim that they're better than animals when the vast majority of us act just like them? I always say, if humans are indeed better or more important than animals, it's that we can choose to be compassionate and kind, whereas you can't convince a lion or a cheetah to do the same! 

I highly recommend Singer's Animal Liberation and Regan's The Case for Animal Rights. Both are great books from great minds. I'm excited to see your next blog post! 

Matthew A. King

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