The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden

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Anything actual has at least some intrinsic value, and any difference between one kind of actuality and another is only a finite difference between different emergent levels or kinds of value corresponding to different emergent levels or kinds of concreteness.

As for the real uniqueness of human existence, human concreteness and value, although only finitely different from those of all other levels or kinds of actual things, are nevertheless emergent properties of a distinctive level or kind that, as such, are irreducible to those of any lower level or kind.

Thus, to argue that every creature on earth has some intrinsic value and, to this extent, deserves to be respected is in no way to imply that all creatures have an equal value or that there are not important differences between the rights of one creature and another.

11 December 2005

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