Personism is an
ethical philosophy of
personhood as typified by the thought of the
preference utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer. It amounts to a branch of
secular humanism with an emphasis on certain rights-criteria. Personists believe that rights are conferred to the extent that a creature is a
person.
Michael Tooley provides the relevant definition of a person, saying it is a creature that is "capable of desiring to continue as a subject of experience and other mental states". A
worldview like
secular humanism is personism when the empathy and values are extended to the extent that the creature is a person (apes get very similar rights, insects get vastly fewer rights, etc.).