Chapter Eleven: Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics

1. Chapter Eleven:Animal Rights andEnvironmental Ethics Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings (10th ed.) Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry Cengage Learning/Wadsworth

2. 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. Approaches to animal rights • Utilitarian: Peter 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 • Kantian: Tom Regan • Rejects utilitarianism • Nonhuman animals should be treated with respect and dignity, just like human animals

4. What is speciecism? • “Speciesism”:a prejudice or attitude of bias toward interests of one’s own species and against those of other species • Conventional view:morality is dependent on persons and social contract among them • Critics of conventional view:all animals have inherent value, even if they are not moral agents

5. Environmental Problems • Ozone depletion • Global warming • Acid rain • Trash • Extinction of species

6. 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. Holistic vs. individualisticenvironmental 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)

8. “All Animals are Equal . . . Or why Supporters of Liberation for Blacks and women should Support Animal Liberation Too ”Peter Singer • Speciesismis wrong for the same reasons sexism and racism are wrong • Principle of equal consideration:the pain that nonhuman animals feel is of equal moral importance to the pain that humans feel • Utilitarianismshows that we owe moral obligations to nonhuman animals

9. “The Case for Animal Rights”Tom Regan • Opposes speciesism (like Singer) • Rejects utilitarianism for animal rights • Uses Kantian respect for nonhuman animals to support animal rights • All lives with inherent value are equal

10. “Do Animals Have Rights?”Carl Cohen • Animals cannot possess rights • Only humans are moral agents with rights • Challenges Regan’s Kantian analysis attributing rights to animals • The use of animals in medical research is justifiable • We have obligations to animals,but that does not mean animals have rights

11. “The Ethics of Respect for Nature”Paul W. Taylor • Individualist (not holistic) approach to environmental ethics • Principal concern: individual organisms, not biotic community as a whole • Life-centered system: Kant-like respect for all of nature • All living things have inherent worth