1. 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

2. Approaches to animal rights
Judeo-Christian tradition
Animals put here for our purposes
Some exceptions: St. Francis of Assisi
Philosophical tradition (Descartes, Kant)
Traditionally excludes nonhuman animals from rights of persons
We have no moral obligations to animals
Social contract theory
Agreement among persons
Excludes rights for animals

3. Approaches to animal rights
Utilitarian: Peter Singer
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
Rejects utilitarianism
Nonhuman animals should be treated with respect and dignity, just like human animals

4. What is speciecism?
“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

5. Environmental Problems
Ozone depletion
Global warming
Acid rain
Trash
Extinction of species

6. Anthropocentrism
Approaching all environmental issues solely in terms of how they impact persons
Human actions are right (or wrong) by:
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

7. 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)

8. Speciesism is wrong for the same reasons sexism and racism are wrong
“All Animals are Equal Or why Supporters of Liberation for Blacks and women should Support Animal Liberation Too ” Peter Singer
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

9. “The Case for Animal Rights” Tom Regan
Opposes speciesism (like Singer)
Rejects utilitarianism for animal rights
Uses Kantian respect for nonhuman animals to support animal rights
All lives with inherent value are equal

10. “Do Animals Have Rights?” Carl Cohen
Animals cannot possess rights
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

11. “The Ethics of Respect for Nature” Paul W. Taylor
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