Because we generally acknowledge a need to discriminate how we relate and interact with others. I treat a child differently than an adult, a dog differently than a human, and a plant differently from an animal. Humans as classification machines; I’m not sure we could interact in this world without it.
I mean, the whole predator/prey paradigm proves this, no? Both sides will act sneaky and use crafty mechanisms to get ahead of each other
I don’t think that fully encapsulates the issue. I can recognize some other being has subjective experience irrespective of any predator/prey relationship.