Transcript Animal Rights - Cengage Learning

Chapter Eleven:
Animal Rights and
Environmental Ethics
Review
Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings (10th ed.)
Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry
Cengage Learning/Wadsworth
What are traditional approaches
to animal rights?
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Judeo-Christian tradition
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Philosophical tradition (Descartes, Kant)
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Animals put here for our purposes
Some exceptions: St. Francis of Assisi
Traditionally excludes nonhuman animals from rights
of persons
We have no moral obligations to animals
Social contract theory
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Agreement among persons
Excludes rights for animals
What are contemporary approaches
to animal rights?
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What is the utilitarian approach? (Singer)
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As animals feel pleasure and pain, just as human
animals, we have moral obligations to them
We should maximize pleasure and minimize pain for
all animals, both human and nonhuman
What is the Kantian approach? (Regan)
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Rejects utilitarianism
Nonhuman animals should be treated with respect
and dignity, just like human animals
What is speciecism?
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What is “Speciesism”?
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What is the conventional view?
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a prejudice or attitude of bias toward interests of
one’s own species and against those of other
species
morality is dependent on persons and social
contract among them
What is criticism of the conventional
view?
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all animals have inherent value, even if they are not
moral agents
What are major environmental
problems today?
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Ozone depletion
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Global warming
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Acid rain
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Trash
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Extinction of species
What is anthropocentrism?
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Approaching all environmental issues solely in terms of
how they impact persons
Human actions are right (or wrong) by:
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Consequences to human well-being (utilitarian)
Consistent with norms protecting human rights (Kantian)
Responsibilities with regard to natural ecosystems, but
only as they further realization of human values and/or
human rights
No obligation to promote or protect good of nonhuman
living things
What is the difference between holistic
and individualistic environmental ethics?
 Holistic
(Leopold): The good of the
biotic community as a whole is the
morally fundamental good
 Individualistic
(Taylor): The good
of the individuals in the biotic
community is the morally
fundamental good (including both
humans and nonhuman life)
“All Animals are Equal . . . Or why Supporters of Liberation for
Blacks and women should Support Animal Liberation Too ”
Peter Singer
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Why is speciesism wrong?
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What is the principle of equal
consideration?
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for the same reasons sexism and racism are wrong
the pain that nonhuman animals feel is of equal
moral importance to the pain that humans feel
What does utilitarianism show?
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shows that we owe moral obligations to
nonhuman animals
“The Case for Animal Rights”
Tom Regan
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Why does he reject utilitarianism for
animal rights?
How does he support rights for nonhuman
animals?
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Using Kantian respect for nonhuman animals
“Do Animals Have Rights?”
Carl Cohen
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How does he argue that animals cannot possess
rights?
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Only humans are moral agents with rights
Challenges Regan’s Kantian analysis
attributing rights to animals
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Is the use of animals in medical research
justifiable?
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What obligations do we have to animals, even
though animals do not have rights?
“The Ethics of Respect for Nature”
Paul W. Taylor
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What is his approach to environmental ethics?
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What is the principal concern of individualists?
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Individual organisms, not biotic community as a whole
What is his life-centered system?
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Individualist (not holistic)
Kant-like respect for all of nature
All living things have inherent worth