"Basically, showing empathy towards animals signals you would be empathetic to people too, which makes you a more desireable peer today."
Pointing this out not against you (because I know this is rhetorical on your part), but to highlight the issue for those who scoff at using anything other than "logic" to decide things: There's also no logical reason why empathy to humans is desirable.
People might say "but what about an orderly society" or something, but then you can always keep asking the basic question of why x is desirable. If you follow it down the chain, it will always come down to subjective normative judgments. "Logically", human society need not exist. Logically, the earth is harmed by humans. Logically, the earth doesn't matter either. Logically, neither the happiness or safety of any individual human nor of human societies as a whole matter. Logically, maybe only math exists, but if nothing else existed, would math even really be said to exist? Is there any "logical" argument for that math and logic matter even though they are logical?
Pointing this out not against you (because I know this is rhetorical on your part), but to highlight the issue for those who scoff at using anything other than "logic" to decide things: There's also no logical reason why empathy to humans is desirable.
People might say "but what about an orderly society" or something, but then you can always keep asking the basic question of why x is desirable. If you follow it down the chain, it will always come down to subjective normative judgments. "Logically", human society need not exist. Logically, the earth is harmed by humans. Logically, the earth doesn't matter either. Logically, neither the happiness or safety of any individual human nor of human societies as a whole matter. Logically, maybe only math exists, but if nothing else existed, would math even really be said to exist? Is there any "logical" argument for that math and logic matter even though they are logical?