Animal Ethics

MAY 4, 2008

The issue as to who or what may be a possessor of rights is not simply a matter of academic, conceptual interest. If, for instance, it is determined that gravely mentally defective human beings and monsters born of human parents are not the kinds of beings who may possess rights, this bears on how we may treat them.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Bears 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 7, 2007

Here is a website that contains much useful information about animal ethics. I'm not sure what relation it bears to Tom Regan, the philosopher from North Carolina State University. It appears to be organized around Regan's book Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights.

North Carolina 40

North Carolina Animal Ethics Bears Ethics 40

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. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals 40

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2007

The sleight of hand that gave us the “selfish” gene gives us the rights of baboons. By abusing evolutionary biology in this way, we are able to read back the sophisticated conduct of people into the animal behavior that prefigures it. It is not that they do no wrong, but that “right” and “wrong” here make no sense.

Animal 40

Animal Morals Apes Emotional 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 8, 2008

For, at least as both are usually construed, the only major difference between ethical egoism and act-utilitarianism is that the egoist is concerned with maximizing utility in his own case, so that only consequences which affect him bear upon the rightness and wrongness of his acts.

Bears 40

Bears Ethics Animal Rights 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Interests arise, Singer contends, from the capacity to feel pain, which he labels a 'prerequisite' for having interests at all; and animals can and do suffer, can and do feel pain.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Slaughter 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