Kantian Approach: Animal Ethics

Question 1

Immanuel Kant

Answer 1

1724-1804, “Do the right thing (regardless of the goodness or badness of the consequence of your action)!”
ex. Shopkeeper: give blind person change because it is right, not because afraid of the consequences

Question 2

Kant’s Rightness

Answer 2

Action motivated by the sense of duty and the sense of duty alone

Question 3

Formulae of the universal law

Answer 3

Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become universal law.
Q: What’s the maxim of my action? Golden rule

Question 4

Formula of humanity

Answer 4

(aka the means-ends principle)
Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, as an end and never as a mere means. ex. friends for the sake of it, not to get something in return

Question 5

Kant’s view on animals

Answer 5

Anthropocentric: Only humans possess moral standing (animals don’t reason)
Non-human animals do not have intrinsic value; merely have instrumental value; are valuable merely because they contribute to humans