Related Ideas

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If having consciousness, intelligence, self-knowledge, and so on are essential to being a person, what about people who have these things to a higher degree than most of us? Do they have an even higher moral status than other people? Later on, you may want to ask whether such people have different or stronger rights than the rest of us. For example, did Einstein have a stronger right to life (or some other right) than you or I? If yes, what does this mean for the rights of ordinary people? If not, what does it mean for the rights of the retarded?

Is there just one plateau for beings with rights or are there several? For example: Are animals, retarded people, average people, and Einstein on one, two, three, or four different moral plateaus? Why? We will return to the topic of rights later.