Heather Adlam
Margot Smith
3 March 2008
PH110B
Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair – J. Baird Callicott
Callicott’s argument for the inclusion of environmental ethics into the animal liberation debate
P1: The current animal liberation debate is individualistic
 Polar debate between ethical humanism and humane moralism
 Atomistic concern with rights
 Argument makes sense with Western individualistic values
P2: Ecology is a relatively new science
 Holistic – focuses on relationships between parts of the environment
 Should consider the impact of actions in the context of the whole
 Naturalistic fallacy isn’t necessarily the case because in life there is a psychological tendency to
feel good about actions that correspond with the way that things are found in the world
 Suggests that a good animal liberation debate considers environment
P3: The core ideas of ecology (holistic) and the animal liberation movement (individualistic) are
contradictory and would have difficulty in finding a common conclusion
 Current debate would be unable to come to conclusions that take into account the environment
as a whole
P4: The land ethic is a holistic ethic where a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community and it is wrong when it tends otherwise
 Ethical actions are determined based on the relative importance of the individual or species in
the preservation of the biotic community
 Shares similar goals and values of both ethical humanism and humane moralism
P5: Taken individually, no one of the three theories can adequately answer questions raised by modern
life and new technologies concerning animals
 Humane moralism extends soft comfort to all sentient creatures
 Moral humanism allows biotic community to be treated as mere means
 Land ethic shrinks the domestic sphere and suggests returning to a tribal human niche
 Domestication example
CONCLUSION:
Environmental ethics should be included in the discussion about animal liberation because it
represents the ecological truths about the consequences of decisions, it can find common ground with
the current atomistic debating parties, and because only together can a good ethical theory emerge
from the animal liberation argument.