Humane-ism

Humane-ism begins with a question most movements have avoided: not what are we doing to animals, but what does doing it say about us?

Rooted in the forgotten legacy of Lewis Gompertz — co-founder of what became the RSPCA, and one of the most radical thinkers in the history of animal ethics — Humane-ism offers a third way beyond the long-running battle between animal welfare and animal rights.

It rests on three principles. First, that the full moral recognition of animals — a world in which their lives and suffering are taken seriously on their own terms — is the destination of genuine moral progress. Second, that welfare reform pursued in the right spirit is real progress, and that the individual animal suffering today cannot wait for the perfect world of tomorrow. Third, and most importantly, that this is not only a question about animals. It is a question about us — about the kind of civilisation we are building, and the moral habits we are cultivating or abandoning.

A civilisation that extends genuine consideration to other species is not merely kinder. It is, in a philosophically defensible sense, more fully human.