Animal Ethics

AUGUST 6, 2009

Here is a crisp (but badly edited) essay by philosopher Nathan Nobis. I like Nathan's distinction between "Oh yeah?" and "So what!" as replies to an argument. Suppose you claim that proposition C follows, logically, from propositions P1 and P2. There are two mistakes you can be making. First, one or more of your premises may be false.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 17, 2008

Here is a review of two new books about the consumption of cow flesh.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 12, 2009

It was, I suggest, to a large extent because he felt that the noblest feature of humanity is the capacity to be self-governing, to adopt principles without being influenced by sensuous motives and then to live by them whatever the contingencies. For Kant, then, worthy acts are (given human fallibility) a proper subset of right acts.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 10, 2008

I think that the only right I ever attribute to animals is the "right" to equal consideration of interests, and anything that is expressed by talking of such a right could equally well be expressed by the assertion that animals' interests ought to be given equal consideration with the like interests of humans.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 11, 2008

," Andrew Revkin explores the brave new world of growing meat cultures in vitro as a more humane and possibly more environmentally friendly way of producing meat. In his post, Revkin cites Jesse Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University. metric tons per year?

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 10, 2008

Sorry, Mylan.)

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Animal Ethics

MAY 28, 2008

How many of you think this experiment is justified? If you think it's justified, would it be justified if the experimental subjects were orphaned children?

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 18, 2006

Currently, I am very interested in social and political philosophy and ethical issues. I felt a strong sense of connection to the ideas of Peter Singer while taking Ethics from Keith. I think this is a very powerful moral argument that is compelling to anyone who gives animals moral consideration.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 10, 2008

Global warming is an animal ethics issue. As the planet warms, fragile habitats that countless animal species depend on for survival will be destroyed. They conclude: Our results suggest that future anthropogenic [human-generated] emissions would need to be eliminated in order to stabilize global-mean temperatures.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Yesterday, the world lost its most powerful voice for animal rights, Tom Regan. No one has done more to explain what "animal rights" means and why animals have rights than Tom Regan.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 21, 2008

From the ecological point of view, for human beings universally to become vegetarians is tantamount to a shift of trophic niche from omnivore with carnivorous preferences to herbivore. The human population would probably, as past trends overwhelmingly suggest, expand in accordance with the potential thus afforded.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 19, 2016

"There is no longer dispute among serious scientists that humans aren’t the only animals who have the capacity to suffer physically and mentally. Elephants, great apes, orcas, dogs, cats, and many other animals can experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and compulsive disorders.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 11, 2008

Madoff to criticize Leona Helmsley’s charitable giving by saying her fortune “is going to the dogs,” but those of us who give to the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rescue organizations feel otherwise. July 9, 2008 Note from KBJ: All of my donations go to animal-welfare organizations.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

I can't be sure, since the editorial opinion is so jumbled, but the board seems to be arguing that people should continue to eat meat, provided the animals whose flesh they consume are not made to suffer. Would the board say the same thing about humans?

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic catechism affirm that compassion for animals is a matter of human dignity. The United Methodist Church supports the humane treatment of farm animals and calls for the protection of endangered species.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 24, 2012

Since this will require increased human intervention in human practices that threaten rare or endangered species (e.g.,

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 12, 2008

Wild animals and native plants have a particular place in nature, according to the land ethic, which domestic animals (because they are products of human art and represent an extended presence of human beings in the natural world) do not have. as is the humane ethic.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 14, 2007

Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. Notice that we (including, I assume, the author) would never allow such treatment of a human being. Are the lives of nonhuman animals less important, to them, than your life is to you? I can't imagine what it is.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 5, 2008

I was also intrigued to read that “in previous studies, researchers showed that humans who had been paralyzed for years could learn to control a cursor on a computer screen with their brain waves.” So why were the monkeys used?

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Animal Ethics

JULY 22, 2008

Common-sense, rational reforms reflect the emerging consensus of mainstream animal protection groups like the Humane Society of the United States and millions of Americans who care about animals. Our findings follow many other studies demonstrating mental anguish in traumatized animals.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 30, 2010

Animal abusers are cowards who take their issues out on “easy victims”—and their targets often include their fellow humans. I cannot begin to say how many incidents I’ve seen involving animal abusers who commit violent acts against humans, and animal neglecters who have also neglected their children or other human dependents.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 29, 2008

The degree of restriction placed on human behavior, furthermore, is relatively slight. Whereas it once used to be argued, as by Newman , that the least human good compensates for any possible amount of animal suffering, the current doctrine is that it requires a considerable good to compensate for such suffering.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 17, 2008

Should we legalize dog meat for human consumption? For a discussion of the issue, see William Saletan’s recent post at the Human Nature Blog. Saletan discusses some reader reactions to his first post on legalizing dog meat here. What's next? Soylent green? What do you think? Should we be eating dog meat?

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Philosophers have shown that the standard reasons offered to exclude animals from the moral circle, and to justify not assessing our treatment of them by the same moral categories and machinery we use for assessing the treatment of humans, do not meet the test of moral relevance. Bernard E.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2010

In the first case, there is no way around the suggestion, which many people appear to believe, that animal experience is so lacking in intensity that the pains of animals are overridden by the pleasures experienced by human beings. Devine seems to think that if humans cease eating meat, they will derive no pleasure from eating.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 23, 2008

To the Editor: Re “ A Disgraceful Farm Bill ” (editorial, May 16): While the farm bill recently approved by Congress deals with enormous agricultural policy issues, it also includes three important provisions to protect animal welfare. These new penalties would give the law some much needed teeth.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 11, 2013

I do not know that it can be better done than in the words of George Nicholson, one of those early pioneers to the influence of whose writings, though now almost forgotten, the cause of humaneness owes so much. "In Henry S.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 3, 2008

Religion has never befriended the cause of humaneness.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 23, 2009

When it is asked whether animals have rights, and whether human beings have duties to them, the question, I think, is partly moral and partly verbal. It is this latter view, I believe, that is in the minds of some of those who deny that animals have rights. Let us consider the moral question first.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

To the Editor: It’s mind-boggling that in spite of overwhelming evidence that the consumption of animal products is directly responsible for a host of human diseases , greenhouse gas production and indescribable animal suffering, the general public continues to satiate its taste buds and support factory farming.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 20, 2008

A few years ago, philosopher David Oderberg published an essay entitled " The Illusion of Animal Rights " in The Human Life Review. A few months ago, having belatedly discovered Oderberg's essay, I wrote a critique entitled " Oderberg on Animal Rights ," which I duly submitted to The Human Life Review for publication.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 29, 2007

There are no experimental data to support the hypothesis that increases in human hydrocarbon use or in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are causing or can be expected to cause unfavorable changes in global temperatures, weather, or landscape. Human activities are producing part of the rise in CO 2 in the atmosphere.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 17, 2007

citizens have been struggling to bring an end to the inhumane practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption. For previous posts on the ethical issues surrounding the slaughtering of horses for human consumption, see here , here , and here. For several years, conscientious U.S. Happily, that struggle is finally over.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 26, 2007

It might be argued that any decrease in suffering for farmed animals is good, morally speaking. Indeed, doesn't it entrench the idea that they are resources for human use? Imagine arguing not that human chattel slavery ought to be abolished, but that it ought to be reformed so as to inflict less suffering on the slaves.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2008

What the utilitarian who defends human carnivorousness must say, then, is something like this: that the amount of pleasure which humans derive per pound of animal flesh exceeds the amount of discomfort and pain per pound which are inflicted on the animals in the process, all things taken into account. Is this plausible?

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 30, 2011

Ross, The Right and the Good [Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1988], 137 [first published in 1930]) Note from KBJ: Since the concepts of desert and good or bad disposition do not apply to animals (who are not moral agents), their pleasure is intrinsically good and their pain intrinsically bad.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2009

on the principle that animals are morally equivalent to humans." Vegetarianism is based on the principle that animals matter, morally. It says nothing about whether animals are "morally equivalent" to humans (whatever that means). This man argues that vegetarianism is immoral. Why is it immoral?

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