Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 18, 2006

Keith has not only been my favorite Philosophy professor that I have studied under during the course of my college experience, but my favorite professor in general. Currently, I am very interested in social and political philosophy and ethical issues.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 12, 2010

If there has been progress in ethics recently it has been through the realization of some ethicists that animal happiness and suffering has to be considered equally with that of human beings. I should draw attention here to the remarkable book Animal Liberation by Professor Peter Singer of Monash University.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 29, 2008

The degree of restriction placed on human behavior, furthermore, is relatively slight. Whereas it once used to be argued, as by Newman , that the least human good compensates for any possible amount of animal suffering, the current doctrine is that it requires a considerable good to compensate for such suffering.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

His book on atheism is among the best I have read on that topic, which is why I used it in my Philosophy of Religion course many years ago. (I I use different books in my courses to keep things interesting for me.) My examination will not be complete, of course. The contrast would be, for example, “health vegetarianism.”

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Not in words, of course, but they can answer in ways that we can understand if we are paying attention. That system may treat sentient animals like car parts, ruin antibiotics we need for human medicine, and destroy rural communities by polluting our air and water, but at least it’s “efficient” (a word Mr. Hurst hammers three times).

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Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

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. So, even if animals are killed painlessly and raised for food in humane ways, it is wrong to kill them.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 19, 2009

It is a merit of utilitarianism, with its stress on happiness and unhappiness, that lower animals must be considered along with human beings, so that they are not debarred from full or direct consideration because they are not "rational."

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Animal Ethics

MAY 4, 2008

Animal rights ideology holds that moral worth comes with sentience or the ability to suffer. Thus, since both animals and humans feel pain, animal rights advocates believe that what is done to an animal should be judged morally as if it were done to a human being. Animals have weight on the moral scale.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 11, 2008

So far McCloskey is on solid ground, but one can quarrel with his denial that any animals but humans have interests. I should think that the trustee of funds willed to a dog or cat is more than a mere custodian of the animal he protects. The animal itself is the beneficiary of his dutiful services.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 11, 2008

Of course, the meat is more expensive since it takes lots of real estate to freely graze a herd, and it’s tougher than typical supermarket fare (Americans are used to a style of marbling that’s caused by grain diets and flabby cattle, whereas grass-fed cows are trim from their daily ambles). Human beings, like dogs, are omnivores.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 27, 2008

Classical thought stopped short of that, of course. Now men in desperation voyage into outer space, searching far-off planets for signs of intelligent, non-human life. The reductio ad absurdum of the classical choice is modern "individualism" in its "Romantic" form—the cult of individual eccentricity. Transcendence.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 3, 2007

When Jesus died on the cross, He didn't just save us humans—He died for the animals, too. Prior to Jesus' death on the cross, animal sacrifices were a common and vital part of every family's worship experience. The animals took the place of humans. Animal sacrifice was no longer necessary.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2008

What have humane people to say to the tremendous mass of animal suffering inflicted in the interests of the Table?

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 4, 2007

The documentary is not short on topics for substantive debate including "humane meat," productivity vs welfare, "animal terrorism laws," and of course the American Veterinary Medical Association's role in welfare reform. If you are able to post something on this documentary I would be grateful.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

To learn more about Arizona's precedent-setting victory for farm animals, see here. September 7, 2006, a bill banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption( H.R. Calling an inhumane practice "humane" does not make that practice humane. We can refuse to purchase products of pain deceptively marketed as "humane."

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Animal Ethics

JULY 30, 2007

We had better therefore take the less complicated case of animals, which we commonly suppose not to be even potential moral agents. It may of course be denied that we have duties to animals. It is not at all clear which is the true view.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 2, 2008

(h) Don’t attend circuses that contain nonhuman animal acts. (i) i) Do attend socially conscious circuses like Cirque de Soleil that exclusively feature human performers. (j) j) Donate only to Humane Charities that don't test on animals. A list of Humane Charities is available here. Do it for the animals.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 16, 2008

It is certainly true that the world’s marine stocks—large fish even more than small ones—are being depleted by human demand at a catastrophic rate. As with many other environmental issues, the real problem is excess population, and the only solution is human population control. Laura Frisk Encinitas, Calif., Lawrence S. 11, 2008

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

(h) Don’t attend circuses that contain nonhuman animal acts. (i) i) Do attend socially conscious circuses like Cirque de Soleil that exclusively feature human performers. (j) j) Donate only to Humane Charities that don't test on animals. A list of Humane Charities is available here. Where should you begin?

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 15, 2009

If some microorganisms must be killed in the process, this is unfortunate but necessary for human life. Why should microorganisms be sacrificed rather than humans? Why is human life more valued than the life of microorganisms? One might be inclined to say that human beings are more valuable because of their intelligence.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

How many problems can be solved—in their entirety—by a single person, even over the course of a lifetime? Does the fact that you can't solve the problem of human suffering mean that you shouldn't do whatever you can to prevent and alleviate human suffering? Surely not. You're one person.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 4, 2009

Becoming a vegetarian is the most practical and effective step one can take towards [sic; kbj] ending both the killing of non-human [sic; kbj] animals and the infliction of suffering upon them. KBJ: Singer’s claim is that one should not contribute, even incrementally, to animal suffering.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 23, 2006

Jonathan Hubbell, a philosophy major at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the newest member of the Animal Ethics blog, and once again, I would like to welcome him aboard. Of course, when hamburgers aren't at stake, most of us think that it would be morally wrong to kill an animal for no good reason.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 24, 2006

As reported in the AP story, two styles of Sean John jackets—one a hooded snorkel style, the other a classic version—were originally advertised as faux fur, but an investigation by the Humane Society of the United States [ HSUS ] found that the jackets were made from dog fur. Of course, no one wants to look like an ingrate.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 2, 2006

Bush signed the “ Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act ” into law this past Monday (November 27, 2006). The law protects animal enterprises from courses of conduct designed to disrupt their normal profitable functioning. The rhetoric of terror has been used to “justify” human rights abuses in Guantanamo.

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