(earthworms feel pain) AND (are therefore of moral concern) → FALSE

@a2bb why?

I feel that this begs the question as to whether or not the capacity for pain is a sufficient condition for moral consideration. In practice, the capacity for pain is generally an important factor when determining if something warrants moral concern, but it doesn't need to be. Most things that have the capacity for pain have higher-order attitudes or preferences towards that pain (most regard it unfavourably; in some cases it is regarded favourably to some extent). However, this doesn't need to be true for all entities. There are possible minds which have the capacity for pain but which lack any morally relevant higher-order attitudes or preferences towards that pain.

@NBAP But also, earthworms very likely don't have the capacity for pain, so vote no regardless.

@NBAP https://manifold.markets/Logaems/do-earthworms-feel-pain#qBRTEokPnfGcv4tjX2zM

Why do you think that earthworms likely don't experience pain? (you may have a different conception of pain than those who wrote the article)

@NBAP It seems hard to imagine a situation where earthworms would not experience suffering by feeling pain (if you had an example, that would be nice)

@Logaems Pain is different from nociception. Pain has a psychological or emotional component that earthworms almost assuredly do not have the capacity for. The linked article says:

"Earthworms do feel pain, as they have a nervous system that allows them to detect when they have been injured. They do not appear to feel emotional pain, however, in the same way that we might."

This is fundamentally misleading. The ability of an organism to detect when it has been injured is called "nociception", and this is not what pain is. When the article says, "They do not appear to feel emotional pain", implying that there is a "non-emotional pain" which is further implied to be the ability "to detect when they have been injured", that is simply incorrect because that is not called "pain".

If the difference between pain and nociception isn't entirely clear, imagine I give you a powerful sedative that knocks you into a dreamless sleep. If I poked your hand with a needle, your hand might twitch and pull away, even though you never consciously experience any pain. The twitching and the pulling away is because your body is still reacting to the aversive stimuli, even though you don't consciously perceive it. That's what's going on in earthworms. What is almost assuredly absent, however, is an emotional or psychological response to the stimuli. An earthworm doesn't have any sort of idea (however simple/non-linguistic) of "Owie, that hurts! I didn't like that!"

This is so prone to intentional manipulation, especially if few people vote