I think the biggest point for me is that it’s like an effort to constantly radiate respect outward from oneself. In that sense, it’s not about discriminating between different potential receivers; it’s about the constant act of respecting; it’s almost a character trait one builds up. It’s like becoming a gentle person in general. To me, it’s not even a principle of “respect everything” as much as it’s just “respect, respect, respect” (like the Beatles? “love, love, love,” etc.)–anything that comes out of you is respect, regardless of where it’s headed.

I don’t mean to deceive people with this; I think my emphasis is just different from a lot of philosophical ideas of animal rights. I feel like it’s understandable for ethical ideals or respectful attitudes to be applied differently in different situations. Being as our survival requires us to kill/eat some living thing (yes? probably?), we can strive to make the most respectful seeming choices of what to kill/eat. I think that making the sentient/non-sentient distinction is useful at this point, although it’s not where I put my emphasis from the start. I also think there are more and less respectful ways of killing/eating plant foods–and it’s worth considering that some plant foods are tied up with human exploitation (non-fair-trade coffee and chocolate have been criticized as sites of modern-day human slavery).

But this in-depth analysis is not my main point. My main point is to constantly radiate respect. How that respect is applied will differ based on the situation.

Thanks for the discussion!
steve

the ‘circle’ usually refers to which things we intend to give moral consideration to. do you propose to respect everything (incl. trees, flowers, rocks, streams, iron ore deposits), only living things, or only living things in the animal kingdom?

if it’s the latter, then you are indeed expanding the circle – expanding it to include all animal life. if you’re arguing that we should respect absolutely everything, or even all living things (including plants), then i think you’re equivocating on the meaning of respect. you can indeed respect a broccoli plant or an apple tree, but presumably that respect wouldn’t extend to refraining from eating broccoli or apples, whereas (for vegans) respecting animals includes not eating them or using them for our own purposes.