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.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 27, 2012

That Kant should hold such a view should not be surprising; it is a direct consequence of his moral theory, the main outlines of which may be briefly, albeit crudely, summarized. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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. How we change the dominant misconception of animals—indeed, whether we change it—is to a large extent a political question. Moral philosophy is no substitute for political action.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

In fact, a whole lot of semi-vegans can do much more for animals than the tiny number of people who are willing to give up all animal products and scrupulously read labels. Farm animals also benefit from the humane farming movement, even if the animal welfare changes it effects are not all that we should hope and work for.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2007

Here are three paragraphs from a recent essay by Roger Scruton : As I suggested, science provides authority for this weird morality only when clothed in moral doctrine. And that explains, in part, the appeal of the animal-rights movement. To live with a human being is hard; to live with a mere animal is easy.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 5, 2007

Nor have I dealt with advances in the legal protection of animals both in practice and in theory. I have focused exclusively on moral theory. Franklin, Animal Rights and Moral Philosophy [New York: Columbia University Press, 2005], xvii-xviii) Nevertheless, I believe that a good theoretical argument is worth the effort.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 4, 2008

For the record, I am opposed to violence in behalf of animals. I can't think of anything that does more harm to the cause of animal liberation. In the long run, the best thing we can do for animals is engage in rational persuasion. Philosophers are trained to do this.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 14, 2009

The best thing that one can do for animals, in the long run, is to persuade people to stop eating them. Of all the ways of influencing behavior, rational persuasion is the most effective, the most secure (in the sense of long-lasting), and the most defensible from a moral point of view. The reason is that it has a backlash effect.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Farm Animal Welfare, ASPCA New York, Feb. 22, 2012 To the Editor: Blake Hurst dismisses companies and consumers who are embracing food production methods that provide more respect for animals and the environment as being motivated by “nostalgia.” No one, Mr. Hurst and me included, wants animals to be subjected to unnecessary pain.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2008

There is a difficulty about drawing from all this a moral for ourselves. But then we can say this because we can say that all those are bad moralities, whereas we cannot look at our own moralities and declare them bad. It is natural to feel sympathy for animals who are suffering. This is bad faith.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 14, 2012

The concept of moral rights differs in important ways from that of legal rights. First, moral rights, if there are any, are universal. An individual's race, sex, religion, place of birth, or country of domicile are not relevant characteristics for the possession of moral rights. a despot) or any group (e.g.,

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 16, 2010

So, how you would respond a person like me who cares for animal welfare, consciously stays away from the worse meat he can, and eats it mostly for cultural reasons. In other words, there are moral limits to science, as to law. When I do cook it (which is maybe once every two weeks), I try to be a responsible as possible.

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