The treatment of animals Michael Lacewing

Utilitarianism Happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain –Bentham: The question is not ‘Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?’ Singer: speciesism is immoral discrimination against animals just because they are not human –But surely there are important differences here, e.g. reason, emotional depth, self-awareness, moral agency –Reply: true, but these are not relevant to causing suffering

Implications Should we stop eating meat, wearing leather, conducting animal experiments? Would doing so reduce the amount of (animal) suffering in the world more than it would increase (human) suffering? Suffering is wrong, but killing is not –Happy animals that are replaced

Kant Human beings are ends in themselves. –We have a rational will and can adopt ends. –This is the only thing that is unconditionally good. –The goodness of every other end depends upon being adopted by a will. Animals are not rational, and so are not ends in themselves. –So they can be treated as means to our ends.

Kant We have no duties to animals, but we do have duties – to people – regarding animals –We must not become unkind through how we treat animals Objection: the harm to the animal, not ourselves, is what is wrong Objection: do we have duties to other human beings who aren’t rational?

Regan’s deontology Creatures who are a ‘subject of a life’ have rights –For such creatures, there is a way its life goes for it, and this matters to it Therefore, we can’t kill them for any reason less important than saving life. All right to life is equal –We should discriminate between more and less valuable lives

Aristotle Animals are not rational and cannot share in eudaimonia –So our moral concern with eudaimonia has little place for considering animals Recent virtue theory: there are virtuous and vicious ways of treating animals What matters is not just capacities, but relationship –We are not wrong to privilege those closest to us –But we do form bonds with animals, and we share aspects of our form of life with them

Virtue ethics Compassion requires that we take account of animal suffering –Reducing animals to ends is selfishness Implications?