Philo - animals

Question 1

Koorsgaard on human attitudes towards animals

Answer 1

Treat all sentient beings as “ends-in-themselves”

Question 2

Cartesian view on nonhuman animals

Answer 2

Since nonhuman animals have no unconscious experiences (anticipation, memory) nothing can be really good or bad for them

Question 3

Peter Singer in Animal Liberation

Answer 3

His daughter has “more to lose” than their dog who could be replaced by another dog having the same pleasant experiences

But: treating beings cruelly based on their species is no more justified than racism

Question 4

Kant: what is ethics really about?

Answer 4

The quality of our relationships with ourselves and others

“How should I treat this being? What do I owe them and myself?

Question 5

Kant: how should we treat animals?

Answer 5

W/ reciprocity and mutual benefit as we would other humans

Moral duties are not owed to animals, but to ourselves

Treating animals without love is demeaning to ourselves as we harshen our treatment of other humans

Question 6

Virtue ethics on eating meat

Answer 6

We ought to eat what a virtuous person would eat

Depends on the circumstance: if you are stranded, or find roadkill

Doesn’t mean you lack compassion or are acting self-indulgently

Question 7

Virtue ethics and Kant

Answer 7

Contrary: VE says the love or benevolence is not limited to humans

Agree: virtuous love toward animals must be respectful which acknowledges their needs

Must avoid viewing what is good for pets from the perspective of our own desires

Question 8

McPherson on animal suffering

Answer 8

1) wrong to cause suffering because of how it feels

2) wrong to deprive beings of their future, even if they don’t see the value of their future

Question 9

Ethical vegetarianism

Answer 9

Wrong to consume meat

OK to consume dairy and eggs so long as they are humanely produced

Question 9

Inefficacy objection

Answer 9

Wrong to inflict animal suffering and death but not wrong to use animal products

Doing so does not make a different to the amount of animal suffering

Question 10

Anti-complicity principle

Answer 10

Wrong to cooperate with other’s plans and benefit from them.

Very demanding, but McPh. says our ethical obl. should be demanding

Question 10

Bobier: Virtuous Modest Veganism

Answer 10

Temperance, justice, compassion motivate a virtuous person to adopt a plant-based diet. At odds with factory farming and ‘humane’ farming.

J: eating meat is unnec. for a healthy life; eating meat for convenience/pleasure is unjust

C: enjoying something that requires the death of another is incompat. with being compass.

T: the temperate person enjoys pleasures for the right reasons

Question 11

The Support Principle

Answer 11

Don’t support a cruel practice if an alternative to it is available, which is comparable in cost and quality and is not the product of an essentially cruel practice

Question 11

Cuneo

Answer 11

Killing animals for food doesn’t violate their basic welfare rights

Killing animals for nourishing food, gustatory pleasure, sustaining valued social practices, and a viable alterative to factory farming doesn’t violate their rights.

Question 12

New omnivorism

Answer 12

Permissible to eat some animals to minimize suffering

Question 13

Non-Ideal World Thesis

Answer 13

Vegan diet involves animal harm

Consumption in capitalism involve harming others

Pesticides, mechanical harvesting of crops…

Question 14

Animal Care Thesis

Answer 14

The virtuous person cares about animals and seeks to minimize animal harm.

Impossible to eliminate animal suffering and death by adopting a strict plant-based diet.

Motivated by compassion to minimize tragedy in non-ideal circumstances.

Question 15

Free meat thesis

Answer 15

Eating free animal products will minimize the number of animals harmed in production.

(a) doesn’t contribute to exploitation of animals, (b) would be thrown out otherwise, and (c) that is available outside the food production system.

Question 16

Pain free animal thesis

Answer 16

Eating animals that do not experience pain will minimize the number of animals harmed in food production.

ObjL we don’t know which animals/insects do and don’t feel pain

a) not eating insects increases harm to animals
b) insects are killed in agri. so not eating them won’t prevent harm to them