Painism

Dr Richard Ryder has played a creative role in developing new ethical ideas for over 30 years and was part of a small group of Oxford writers in the early 1970s who revived interest in the ethical treatment of animals. Including animals within the moral circle was itself a revolutionary step and one that has begun to bear fruit in the new body of legislation protecting animals internationally. These ideas helped pioneer the modern interest in applied ethics generally. Ryder's concept of speciesism is now widely debated in philosophical circles, and indeed has had an entry in the Oxford Dictionary since 1985. Ryder. Painism, a term Ryder coined in 1990, is the word he employs to describe his unique ethical position. Painism goes far wider than the treatment of animals, and also covers human situations, many of which are examined in this book - often with provocative and controversial results. Painism's implications for human society are quite considerable, not least because of its insistence that the quantity of sufferers affected by any event is irrelevant; instead, all is judged by the pain of the individual who suffers most. Thus painism stands between, and to an extent forms a bridge between, the two great rival theories in modern ethics: Utilitarianism and Rights Theory.