Ethical treatment of animals -
Matheny
some basic concepts:
We use (non-human) animals for food, experimentation, clothing and companionship.
Is the way we treat animals ethical, i.e. morally justified?
Key disputed issue -
Matheny
The moral standing of animals
Direct moral standing: something has DMS if it, independently of its relation to other things or creatures, possesses features in virtue of which it deserves to be given moral consideration by agents capable of making moral c
Speciesism?
Matheny
Racism and sexism are morally wrong because they involve discrimination based solely on race and sex of individuals that have direct moral standing.
Can this be extended to species-based discrimination?
E.g. systematic discrimination against the interests
Gaverick Matheny - Utilitarianism and Animals
Utilitarianism: act in such a way as to maximize the expected satisfaction of interests in the world, based on the principle of equal consideration.
A form of consequentialism
Good = pleasure, bad = pain
Do non-humans have morally relevant interests?
Matheny
As long as they can experience pleasure or pain, yes.
Most animals (except some, e.g. insects) can experience pain.
This kind of sentience is sufficient condition for having morally relevant interests.
Perhaps one can argue that even though animals can feel pain, their interests in avoiding pain are not as intense (i.e. are of a lesser degree) than ours.
Matheny
This is not a problem because in utilitarianism numbers matter - the sum of a larger number of interests of smaller intensity can outweigh the sum of a smaller number of interests with grater intensity.
It is morally wrong to eat factory farmed animals?
Matheny
We have no nutritional need for animal products.
The life conditions for animals in factory farming are such that they cause them a large amount of pain.
Therefore, since the amount of animals' pain in factory farming conditions outweighs the benefit (if
Laboratory experiments on animals?
Matheny
Can be morally justified only in special conditions - when the level of satisfaction of our (human) interests outweighs the suffering of test animals.
Most experiments on animals would not satisfy this criterion.
Consider whether you would conduct the sam
Some arguments against Matheny's utilitarian position on animals:
Matheny
Sentience (feeling pleasure/pain) is not sufficient for moral consideration (i.e. for direct moral standing).
Because of this, moral considerations should be extended only to those that also possess certain level or rationality, intelligence, language, or
Carl Cohen - Do Animals Have Rights?
What is a right?
a valid claim
made by a moral agent
under principles that govern and are understood by both the claimant and the target of the claim.
E.g.: you have the right to the return of the money you lent me
Cohen's
I may have an interest in keeping the money, and you may have no interest in getting it
This, however, is beside the point: you have a right to it, regardless of anybody's interests
E.g. we may have an interest in finding the cure for cancer, but if findi
Tom Regan, an advocate of animal rights:
Cohen's
Lab rats have the right to life and not to be harmed, so any experimentation on them is a violation of their rights and is thus immoral.
Cohen - animals do not have rights
Cohen's
Distinguishing between rights and obligations
Rights entail moral obligations:
If you have a right to the return of money I borrowed, I have an obligation to repay it.
However, not all moral obligations are entailed by rights:
Hosts have the obligation to
Why animals do not have rights:
Cohen's
Animals cannot be bearers of rights because the concept of rights is essentially human
A rat can no more be said to have rights than a table can be said to have ambition.
In order to have rights, you need to be able to understand and apply the concept of
The ability required in order to be able to have rights:
Cohen's
To be a moral agent is to be able to grasp the generality of moral restrictions on your will.
We understand that some things, although in our interest, must not be willed
We lay down moral laws for ourselves and thus exhibit moral autonomy no animal can e
The common objection:
.
Cohen's
Human infants and certain mentally handicapped have rights but can make no moral claims or judgments
Cohen's reply:
Rights are not tied to some individual ability like rationality, or the capacity to communicate, or the capacity to experience suffering.
They are tied to the possession of moral autonomy
And having moral autonomy is an essential property of the human spe
Why animals are mistakenly believed to have rights?
Cohen's
Tom Regan's argument:
Animals have inherent value, and all things that have inherent value have rights.
Cohen argues that Regan's reasoning involves the fallacy of equivocation
Informal fallacy in which two or more meanings of the same word have been conf