Assignment task: Singer quotes Stanley Benn (p. 104). Benn seems to be making a claim that is similar to Kant's claim. Benn refers to rationality as the human norm. According to Benn, an imbecile is to be given equal consideration because, although falling short of the norm, an imbecile is still a member of the human species. He claims that it would be unfair to give the imbecile unequal consideration just because of an isolated defect. Benn thinks that although a normal dog may have something like the reasoning ability of an imbecile, treating the dog unequally is acceptable because it is a member of a species in which rationality is not the norm. But Singer asks, "If it is unfair to take advantage of an isolated defect, why is it fair to take advantage of a more general limitation?" (p. 104) (The more general limitation is that the dog fails to be a member of a species in which rationality is the norm.)
Did Singer make a good point here about the dog and the imbecile? Would we be taking unfair advantage of a dog by not giving it equal moral consideration of it