Animal Ethics
Animal ethics studies the moral status of non-human animals and the obligations humans have toward them in practices such as food production, research, and companionship.
Definition
The branch of applied ethics concerned with the moral standing of non-human animals and human duties toward them.
Scope
This area covers whether and why non-human animals are morally considerable, the basis of any moral status (sentience, the capacity for a life that can go well or badly, or being a 'subject-of-a-life'), the distinction between welfare-based and rights-based approaches, and applied questions about the use of animals. It surveys the principal theories and debates, describing the positions and their arguments rather than prescribing how individuals should treat or consume animals.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- Do non-human animals have moral status, and on what basis?
- Is sentience sufficient for moral consideration, or is more required?
- Should our concern for animals be framed in terms of welfare or of rights?
- What follows for practices such as farming, experimentation, and keeping animals?
Key theories
- Equal consideration of interests
- Peter Singer's utilitarian argument that the interests of all sentient beings deserve equal consideration, so that disregarding animal suffering merely because of species membership is 'speciesism', analogous to other arbitrary discriminations.
- Animals as subjects-of-a-life
- Tom Regan's rights-based view that many animals are 'subjects-of-a-life' with inherent value, grounding moral rights that may not be overridden simply to maximize aggregate welfare.
History
While concern for animals has a long history, modern animal ethics as a philosophical field dates to the 1970s, especially Singer's Animal Liberation (1975) and Regan's The Case for Animal Rights (1983). Later work, including Kantian and capabilities-based accounts by Korsgaard and Nussbaum, broadened the theoretical landscape.
Debates
- Welfare versus rights frameworks
- A central dispute over whether the wrong of mistreating animals is best captured by aggregating and weighing interests (welfare) or by recognizing inviolable rights, which can yield different verdicts about trade-offs.
Key figures
- Peter Singer
- Tom Regan
- Christine Korsgaard
- Martha Nussbaum
Related topics
Seminal works
- singer1975
- regan1983
- korsgaard2018
Frequently asked questions
- What is speciesism?
- Speciesism is the term, popularized by Singer, for giving lesser moral weight to a being's interests solely because it belongs to a different species, which he argues is an arbitrary basis for discrimination.
- Does animal ethics tell people to be vegetarian?
- As a field it analyses arguments about the use of animals; particular philosophers reach particular conclusions, but the subject as presented here describes those arguments rather than directing anyone's diet.