Chapter Eleven: Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics Review

1
Chapter ElevenAnimal Rights andEnvironmental
Ethics Review

• Applying Ethics A Text with Readings (10th ed.)
• Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry
• Cengage Learning/Wadsworth

2
What are traditional approaches to animal rights?

• Judeo-Christian tradition
• Animals put here for our purposes
• Some exceptions St. Francis of Assisi
• Philosophical tradition (Descartes, Kant)
• Traditionally excludes nonhuman animals from
  rights of persons
• We have no moral obligations to animals
• Social contract theory
• Agreement among persons
• Excludes rights for animals

3
What are contemporary approaches to animal
rights?

• What is the utilitarian approach? (Singer)
• 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)
• Rejects utilitarianism
• Nonhuman animals should be treated with respect
  and dignity, just like human animals

4
What is speciecism?

• What is Speciesism?
• a prejudice or attitude of bias toward interests
  of ones own species and against those of other
  species
• What is the conventional view?
• morality is dependent on persons and social
  contract among them
• What is criticism of the conventional view?
• all animals have inherent value, even if they are
  not moral agents

5
What are major environmental problems today?

• Ozone depletion
• Global warming
• Acid rain
• Trash
• Extinction of species

6
What is anthropocentrism?

• Approaching all environmental issues solely in
  terms of how they impact persons
• Human actions are right (or wrong) by
• 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

7
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)

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All Animals are Equal . . . Or why Supporters of
Liberation for Blacks and women should Support
Animal Liberation Too Peter Singer

• Why is speciesism wrong?
• for the same reasons sexism and racism are wrong
• What is the principle of equal consideration?
• the pain that nonhuman animals feel is of equal
  moral importance to the pain that humans feel
• What does utilitarianism show?
• shows that we owe moral obligations to nonhuman
  animals

9
The Case for Animal RightsTom Regan

• Why does he reject utilitarianism for animal
  rights?
• How does he support rights for nonhuman animals?
• Using Kantian respect for nonhuman animals

10
Do Animals Have Rights?Carl Cohen

• How does he argue that animals cannot possess
  rights?
• Only humans are moral agents with rights
• Challenges Regans Kantian analysis attributing
  rights to animals
• Is the use of animals in medical research
  justifiable?
• What obligations do we have to animals, even
  though animals do not have rights?

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The Ethics of Respect for NaturePaul W. Taylor

• What is his approach to environmental ethics?
• Individualist (not holistic)
• What is the principal concern of individualists?
• Individual organisms, not biotic community as a
  whole
• What is his life-centered system?
• Kant-like respect for all of nature
• All living things have inherent worth