Chapter Eleven:
Animal Rights and
Environmental Ethics
Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings (10th ed.)
Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry
Cengage Learning/Wadsworth
Approaches to animal rights
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Judeo-Christian tradition
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Philosophical tradition (Descartes, Kant)
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Animals put here for our purposes
Some exceptions: St. Francis of Assisi
Traditionally excludes nonhuman animals from rights
of persons
We have no moral obligations to animals
Social contract theory
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Agreement among persons
Excludes rights for animals
Approaches to animal rights
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Utilitarian: Peter Singer
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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
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Rejects utilitarianism
Nonhuman animals should be treated with respect
and dignity, just like human animals
What is speciecism?
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“Speciesism”: a prejudice or attitude of bias
toward interests of one’s 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
Environmental Problems
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Ozone depletion
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Global warming
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Acid rain
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Trash
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Extinction of species
Anthropocentrism
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Approaching all environmental issues solely in terms of
how they impact persons
Human actions are right (or wrong) by:
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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
Holistic vs. individualistic
environmental 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)
“All Animals are Equal . . . Or why Supporters of Liberation for
Blacks and women should Support Animal Liberation Too ”
Peter Singer
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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
“The Case for Animal Rights”
Tom Regan
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Opposes speciesism (like Singer)
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Rejects utilitarianism for animal rights
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Uses Kantian respect for nonhuman
animals to support animal rights
All lives with inherent value are equal
“Do Animals Have Rights?”
Carl Cohen
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Animals cannot possess rights
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Only humans are moral agents with rights
Challenges Regan’s 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
“The Ethics of Respect for Nature”
Paul W. Taylor
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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