Animal rights, specieism, utilitarianism

1. 1. What is Speciesism?
2. What is the Utilitarian stand on animal
rights?
3. “People must refrain from using animals
in biomedical research”. Agree or
disagree? Defend your answer.
4. What do you think is the basis of our
attitude towards animals?
Answer the following questions
logically.

2. Animal Rights and
Environmental Ethics

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. “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

10. “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

11. “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

12. “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