Using and abusing others : a reply to Machan

In “Why Humans Beings May Use Animals” Tibor R. Machan argues that members of the human species are more important or valuable than other animals in virtue of having more complex cognitive capacities, most notably an ability to engage in moral reasoning. According to Machan, there is a hierarchy of complexity in nature and the animals at the apex of the hierarchy, Homo sapiens, are entitled to use, inflict pain upon, and even kill, animals lower down on the complexity continuum.