Editing Speciesism (section)

===Spread of the idea===
[[File:Peter Singer MIT Veritas.jpg|thumb|200x200px|[[Peter Singer]] popularized the idea in ''[[Animal Liberation (book)|Animal Liberation]]'' (1975).]]
The term was popularized by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer in his book ''[[Animal Liberation (book)|Animal Liberation]]'' (1975). Singer had known Ryder from his own time as a graduate philosophy student at Oxford.<ref>Diamond (2004), p. 93; Singer (1990), pp. 120–121</ref> He credited Ryder with having coined the term and used it in the title of his book's fifth chapter: "Man's Dominion ... ''a short history of speciesism''", defining it as "a prejudice or attitude of [[bias]] in favour of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species":

<blockquote>Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of their own race when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favouring the interests of their own sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater interests of members of other species. The pattern is identical in each case.{{sfn|Singer, 1990|pp=6,9}}</blockquote>

Singer stated from a [[Preference utilitarianism|preference-utilitarian]] perspective, writing that speciesism violates the principle of [[equal consideration of interests]], the idea based on [[Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham's]] principle: "each to count for one, and none for more than one." Singer stated that, although there may be differences between humans and nonhumans, they share the capacity to suffer, and we must give equal consideration to that suffering. Any position that allows similar cases to be treated in a dissimilar fashion fails to qualify as an acceptable moral theory. The term caught on; Singer wrote that it was an awkward word but that he could not think of a better one. It became an entry in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' in 1985, defined as "discrimination against or exploitation of animal species by human beings, based on an assumption of mankind's superiority."<ref name="Wise2004p26">Wise (2004), p. 26</ref> In 1994 the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy]]'' offered a wider definition: "By analogy with racism and sexism, the improper stance of refusing respect to the lives, dignity, or needs of animals of other than the human species."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy |last=Blackburn |first=Simon |date=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192116949 |location=Oxford; New York |pages=358 |language=en |oclc=30036693}}</ref>