Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Animal Rights A stronger argument is made by people who maintain that animals have rights. In particular, it has been argued that animals have a right to life. The subject is a large and controversial one.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Suffering Killing 40

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. I have argued that there is no incompatibility between being a nonvegetarian and advocating the painless and humane treatment of animals. People who do not eat meat for moral reasons tend to be less brutal than people who do eat meat.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Inhumane Meat 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 21, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. SOME PROBLEMS OF MORAL VEGETARIANISM With respect to traditional moral vegetarianism some problems immediately come to the fore. Who exactly is not supposed to eat animals or products of animals?

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Meat Lions 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. What Is an Animal Part? The last example suggests the difficulty of making a clear distinction between an animal part and an animal product. The same would be true of Martin’s hypothetical animal legs. KBJ: Agreed.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

A third of a century ago, when the modern animal-liberation movement was in its infancy, Martin published an essay entitled “A Critique of Moral Vegetarianism,” Reason Papers (fall 1976): 13-43. You will, therefore, agree with Martin about moral vegetarianism but not about Christianity. One is health.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Let us think of the more moral members of society as a moral elite, much as the generality of scientists form a scientific elite. I hope I do not need to stress that such a moral elite must not be confused with a social or intellectual elite. I am myself not so heroic. I eat eggs though they may come from battery hens.

Morals 40

Morals Whales Whaling Chickens 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 30, 2011

But when a moral being is feeling a pleasure or pain that is deserved or undeserved, or a pleasure or pain that implies a good or a bad disposition, the total fact is quite inadequately described if we say 'a sentient being is feeling pleasure, or pain'. Pleasure is good when, and only when, it is deserved.

Morals 40

Morals Indianapolis Humane Suffering 40

Reddit Animals

APRIL 11, 2023

Reptiles that are not treated ethically simply do not make good pets. And their behavior is completely consistent with what we would understand as "animal sentience." Whether we like to admit it or not, we (culturally) view animals on a "sentience spectrum."

Pythons 40

Pythons illegal Florida Killing 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. One might assume—although again this assumption may not be jusitified [sic]—that Mr. One might assume—although again this assumption may not be jusitified [sic]—that Mr. Morse was using this consideration as a moral argument for vegetarianism.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Humane Society Of The United States Slaughter 40

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

Moral philosophers, even those belonging to the Critical School [the followers of Kant and Fries], have often represented duties to animals as indirect duties to oneself or to other men. Now, maltreatment of animals may have just that effect; nevertheless the argument in question takes no account of the whole truth.

Animal 45

Animal Ethics Cruelty Morals 45

Animal Ethics

MAY 25, 2008

One restriction on the absolutism of man's rule over Nature is now generally accepted: moral philosophers and public opinion agree that it is morally impermissible to be cruel to animals. That, on the whole, is the Christian tradition. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals 40

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Human Grain Shortage All of the clearly moral arguments for vegetarianism given so far have been in terms of animal rights and suffering. Nobody wants existing animals to be slaughtered.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Cattle 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 27, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. ARGUMENTS FOR MORAL VEGETARIANISM A variety of arguments have been given for vegetarianism. Sometimes they take such a sketchy form that it is not completely clear they are moral arguments. Tags: Moral Vegetarianism.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Monkeys Meat 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 10, 2009

He seems to think that the demand for free-range pork is a demand for wild pork, when in fact it's a demand for morally acceptable conditions for the pigs. Here is a New York Times op-ed column about free-range pigs. The author is confused. In other words, people want to eat not wild pigs but domestic pigs raised in humane conditions.

Morals 40

Morals Free Range Pigs New York Times 40

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

Nor is it true that the worth of an animal''s life, any more than of a man''s, can be measured simply by the amount of "agreeable sensation," a fallacy often put forward by those who cage animals in menageries, on the plea that they are there well tended and saved from the struggle for existence.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Morals 40

Animal Ethics

JUNE 27, 2012

Unlike [John] Rawls, whose considered views on our duties regarding animals are unclear at best, [Immanuel] Kant provides us with an explicit statement of an indirect duty view. As such, no moral agent is ever to be treated merely as a means. Moral agents are not nonrational, do not have "only a relative value," and are not things.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Morals Animal 2004 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 1, 2010

As regards animals, the position is clear. If an animal has the relevant moral capacities, actually or potentially, then it can be a possessor of rights. It may for this reason be morally appropriate for us meanwhile to act towards the former animals as if they are possessors of rights. (H.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Morals Animal 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 10, 2008

It would only be surprising to one who assumes that my case for animal liberation is based upon rights and, in particular, upon the idea of extending rights to animals. My basic moral position (as my emphasis on pleasure and pain and my quoting Bentham might have led Fox to suspect) is utilitarian.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Liberation Animal 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Yesterday, the world lost its most powerful voice for animal rights, Tom Regan. No one has done more to explain what "animal rights" means and why animals have rights than Tom Regan. As Regan expressed so simply and straightforwardly, what animal rights advocates want is for "people to stop doing terrible things to animals."

2017 75

2017 Raleigh Animal Advocacy Animal Rights 75

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Again, all or most men in whom the moral consciousness is strongly developed find themselves from time to time in conflict with the commonly received morality of the society to which they belong: and thus—as was before said—have a crucial experience proving that duty does not mean to them what other men will disapprove of them for not doing.

Morals 40

Morals Indianapolis Ethics Experience 40

Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2008

What the utilitarian who defends human carnivorousness must say, then, is something like this: that the amount of pleasure which humans derive per pound of animal flesh exceeds the amount of discomfort and pain per pound which are inflicted on the animals in the process, all things taken into account. Is this plausible?

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Vegetarian Cooking Slaughter 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 26, 2011

The whole dimension of morality doesn’t apply to him, or scarcely applies to him. It is well written and interesting, and might even change your mind about the moral status of animals.

Morals 40

Morals Animal 2009 Cats 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2015

Forty years ago, the suggestion that nonhuman animals have moral rights—indeed, many of the same rights as human beings—would have been met with incredulous stares, if not outright ridicule. Fast forward to the present. Other results from this Gallup poll can be found here.

Morals 40

Morals 2015 Industry Protection 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

It is simply projustice, insisting only that the scope of justice be seen to include respect for the rights of animals. The animal rights movement is not for the faint of heart. How we change the dominant misconception of animals—indeed, whether we change it—is to a large extent a political question.

Animal Rights Movement 40

Animal Rights Movement Animal Rights Rights Los Angeles 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

The rights view merely requires moral consistency in this regard. ( Tom Regan , The Case for Animal Rights , updated with a new preface [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004], 388 [first edition published in 1983]) If that means that there are some things we cannot learn, then so be it.

Science 40

Science Los Angeles 2004 Morals 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 10, 2009

A nice moral bond of union, truly, between colonies and motherland! "We interknit ourselves with every part of the English-speaking world," said the journal of the Cosme colony , in Paraguay, describing its Christmas celebration of 1898, "by the most sacred ceremony of over-eating." Good living," unfortunately, is a somewhat equivocal term.

Morals 40

Morals Paraguay Vegetarian Meat 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Does my proposal as to what makes killing another human being generally a major moral wrong in any way help us with deciding what, if anything, is wrong with killing non-human animals and foetuses? Systematic cullings in the absence of feasible alternatives, therefore, may be morally permissible. I believe it does help.

Killing 40

Killing Animal Morals Animal Liberation 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 13, 2008

First of all, I want to tell you how much I enjoy Animal Ethics. I especially liked your posting from Gardner Williams’ “The Moral Insignificance of the Total of All Value.” It’s a job-matching site for all jobs related to animals, like training, grooming, veterinary medicine, caretaking, zoo positions, and much, much more.

Animal Ethics 40

Animal Ethics Maryland Ethics Animal Friendly 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 9, 2008

Dear Professor Burgess-Jackson, The Michigan Law Review ’s companion journal First Impressions this week published an online symposium on Agricultural Animals and Animal Law. The symposium includes contributions that discuss the moral status of nonhuman animals.

Michigan 40

Michigan Animal Ethics Laws Morals 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

The problem of the unjust use of farm animals is large, growing, historical, institutionalized, governmentally encouraged, and fundamentally unregulated at either the state or federal level. Farm animals are treated essentially as raw materials. Instead it aids industry boards that exist solely to sell animal products.

Farm Animal 40

Farm Animal Farmed Animals Farming Factory Farm 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 23, 2009

I will conclude with some remarks about the rights of animals. When it is asked whether animals have rights, and whether human beings have duties to them, the question, I think, is partly moral and partly verbal. Let us consider the moral question first. Hominum causa omne ius constitutum.)

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Cruelty 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2012

The initial attractiveness of utilitarianism as a moral theory on which to rest the call for the better treatment of animals was noted in an earlier context. Because animals are sentient (i.e., Because animals are sentient (i.e.,

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 15, 2012

If people are encouraged to believe that the harm done to animals matters morally only when these animals belong to endangered species, then these same people will be encouraged to regard the harm done to other animals as morally acceptable. This is not what the rights view implies.

Endangered Species 40

Endangered Species Species Los Angeles Morals 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 21, 2008

But since something can correctly be regarded as an object of moral action if, and only if, it is worthy of respect, it follows that persons, and persons only, can be objects of moral action. From this it follows that any being that is not a person can, with moral justification, be used merely as a means.

Morals 40

Morals Animal Ethics Rights 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 31, 2008

My view, then, is not that which it has often been taken to be in discussion and which Singer, Regan, Clark, and others blast in their work; I am not suggesting that, because they lack language, animals can be factory farmed without suffering. Animals can suffer, which they could not unless they were conscious; so they are conscious.

Suffering 40

Suffering Animal Suffering Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 18, 2007

Since a number of "Animal Ethics" readers reside in the northern Illinois area, I thought I would call your attention to an exciting lecture that is taking place on Northern Illinois University's campus. She specializes in Environmental Ethics, Human-Animal Ethics, and Moral Psychology. Jenni, Ph.D.

Illinois 40

Illinois Animal Ethics Ethics Morals 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 30, 2012

The legal rights of nonhuman animals might first be achieved in any of three ways. For example, the Treaty of Amsterdam that came into force on May 1, 1999, formally acknowledged that nonhuman animals are “sentient beings” and not merely goods or agricultural products. Wise , “ The Evolution of Animal Law Since 1950 ,” chap.

Rights 40

Rights For Animals Legislation Laws 40