Chapter Eleven: Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics

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Chapter ElevenAnimal Rights andEnvironmental
Ethics

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

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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

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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

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What is speciecism?

• Speciesism a prejudice or attitude of bias
  toward interests of ones 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

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Environmental Problems

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

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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

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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)

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

• Speciesism is 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
• Utilitarianism shows that we owe moral
  obligations to nonhuman animals

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The Case for Animal RightsTom 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

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Do Animals Have Rights?Carl Cohen

• Animals cannot possess rights
• Only humans are moral agents with rights
• Challenges Regans 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

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The Ethics of Respect for NaturePaul 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