MODULE 1: Animals

Announcement 

SMU Philosophy Club

Do you like talking about philosophy? Do you want to meet other people who like talking and thinking about philosophy as much as you do? Join the SMU Philosophy Club!

It’s open to anyone with an interest in philosophy, regardless of your major or previous experience with philosophy courses.

At our next meeting (Thursday Sept 30) we’ll be discussing space colonization.

WHEN? Every Thursday from 5 - 6 PM

 

WHERE? Hyer Hall 200  

Please contact the club faculty advisor, Prof. Alida Liberman (aliberman@smu.edu) if you have any questions.

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Agenda this week

1. Monday: moral status of animals + discuss reports
2. Wednesday: moral status of animals + discuss reports
3. Friday: moral status of plants

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Reports

Reporting document

Canvas topic choice assignment

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MODULE 1: When making environmental decisions, what has moral status?

View (1) Anthropocentrism (Baxter)

just people have moral status; we should be concerned with other beings only to the extent that they affect or matter to people

View (2) "Animals matter too" -- they have moral status as individuals

• not just as specimens of species
• not just as contributors to ecosystems
• we have obligations to individual animals
• they have value as individuals
• at least some animals

Environmental questions involving animals

1. New drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--does the impact on caribou matter (directly)
2. Wind turbines--does the impact on birds matter (directly)?
3. Culling buffalos in Yellowstone--does the death of each buffalo matter (directly)?
4. Using pesticides like DDT -- does harm to penguins, fish, even mosquitos matter (directly)?

POLL -- is your gut feeling yes or no?

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Clare Palmer, "Animal Ethics" 

The Marius question -- a puzzle about painless killing

Warning: pretty gruesome

 

The vet explains himself in a TED talk

Public reaction

Two very different defenses

1. Animals don't matter as individuals, but only as species, and the zoo is protecting the species
2. Captive animals are better off being able to breed, even if the surplus has to be killed

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Animals DO matter as individuals --  why? which?

Utilitarianism (Peter Singer)

• utilitarians think the prime ethical directive is: maximize total happiness
• who has moral status? all sentient beings
• sentience = the capacity for pain, pleasure, and other positive and negative experiences
• other capacities may matter but only indirectly 
• must do cost-benefit analysis
• The Marius question -- if it's painless killing is it OK?
• The environmental questions

Rights view (Tom Regan)

• all beings who are "subjects of a life" have basic rights--right to life, right to liberty, right not to be tortured
• doesn't matter if they're less intelligent (so are babies)
• no need for cost-benefit analysis
• Apply to Marius

Hierarchical view (Gary Varner) 

• persons (us), near persons (higher animals), merely sentient
• they all have moral status (doesn't come in degrees)\
• But they have varying degrees of moral significance
• We owe more to higher animals
• Apply to Marius

Humane traditionalism (not discussed by Palmer)

• No animal has anything like human moral status
• But we have certain obligations to animals (if sentient)
• No pointless killing, no torture
• Thoughts about Marius?

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Context view (Clare Palmer)--next time