The belief that intelligence or rationality determines moral worth — and therefore grants the right to exploit or kill those deemed to have less of it.
Sapiencism is not a logical conclusion. It is a moral assumption dressed up as one. It is the quiet, unexamined leap from "different cognitive capacity" to "therefore killable" — a leap that is never examined and never justified.
If you would not apply this criteria consistently to every human being regardless of their cognitive capacity, you are not applying a principle. You are applying a preference.
On the record
"I think it's only wrong to kill things that have the ability, sentience, the ability of the capacity of sentience."
— Dean Withers, on record
By this statement, sentience is the threshold for moral consideration. Pigs, cows, and chickens have sentience. They are through the door. Now justify killing them — because every answer that follows comes down to intelligence or rationality. That's sapiencism. A bias Dean Withers has not named, examined, or justified.
The logic
1.
Dean Withers states: it is only wrong to kill things with sentience. Sentience = moral consideration.
2.
Pigs, cows, and chickens have sentience. They qualify.
3.
Killing them therefore requires moral justification.
4.
Every justification offered defaults to intelligence or rationality. That's sapiencism. Not the original criteria. A quietly swapped one.
5.
He set sentience as the criteria. We're just holding him to it.
Sapiencism vs speciesism
Speciesism
Bias toward members of your own species. Broad. Describes the general prejudice that humans matter more than animals.
Sapiencism ← this is more precise
The specific belief that cognitive capacity determines moral worth. Names the exact mechanism used to justify killing sentient animals.
Frequently asked
Who coined sapiencism?
Sapiencism was coined by Earthling Official during a series of debates with Dean Withers on the moral logic of veganism, animal sentience, and the criteria used to justify killing animals.
Is sapiencism the same as saying all animals are equally intelligent?
No. Sapiencism does not make claims about relative intelligence between species. It challenges whether intelligence should be the criteria for moral worth at all. The two are completely separate questions.
What is Dean Withers' position on sentience?
Dean Withers stated on record that it is only wrong to kill things that have the capacity for sentience. This places pigs, cows, and chickens inside the boundary of moral consideration by his own criteria — requiring him to justify their killing on other grounds. Those other grounds are sapiencism.
Where can I see the debates?