Module 8: Animal Rights

• Peter Singer wrote animal liberation, founder of animal rights movement
• what is peter singers background?

  philosophy professor, work in bioethics and animal rights
• what is peter singers philosophy?

  animals can suffer the same as humans, so should have moral status
• utilitarianism: action becomes a duty if prevents more pain than it causes
• how is singer's view informed by utilitarianism?

  if animals can suffer they should be allowed rights
• speciesism: prejudice or bias in favor of interests of own species, often against other species
• equal consideration: animal pain is of equal moral importance to human pain
• singer's view on equal consideration: if animals have moral standing, humans exploiting animals is the same as exploiting other humans
• what philosopher has influence in animal rights?

  Kant
• what question does kant address moral philosophy with?

  what ought I to do?
• what is immanuel kant's means to an end argument?

  should not act in a way that treats humanity only as a means
• what is the debate for kant's means to an end argument?

  all human life uses others in pursuit of goals
• tom regan's philosophy: inherent value of animals is equal to humans, so animals have rights
• what is regan's subject of a life argument?

  animals are subjects of a life, have rights because they have value
• what is the criteria for subject of a life?

  • has welfare
  • wants and prefers things
  • believes and feels things
  • recalls and expects things
  • has ends of its own
• why is a subject of a life required to be 1 year of age?

  have reached independence
• debate to subject of a life: human fetuses/newborns don't satisfy requirements
• what were the main ideas of the case for animal rights by regan?

  • denies utilitarianism
  • rights view shouldn't be limited to humans
  • wrong to treat animals as commodities/resources for human use