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5 - Humans and Other Animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2024

Dale Jamieson
Affiliation:
New York University
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Summary

How we should treat nonhuman animals is one of the most important environmental questions that we face. Although most people think of humans as having a qualitatively different moral status than nonhuman animals, there is no morally significant criterion for membership in the moral community that is satisfied by all and only humans. If the criterion is demanding enough (e.g., language), it excludes some humans; if it is permissive enough to include all humans (e.g., sentience), it includes some nonhumans. The discovery that “speciesism” is indefensible opens the door to a range of strong animal-protection philosophies – for example, Peter Singer’s “animal liberation,” which is founded on utilitarianism, and Christine Korsgaard’s “fellow creatures” view, which has a Kantian foundation. These views converge in concluding that many of the ways that we treat animals are wrong.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ethics and the Environment
An Introduction
, pp. 87 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Humans and Other Animals
  • Dale Jamieson, New York University
  • Book: Ethics and the Environment
  • Online publication: 29 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992053.006
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  • Humans and Other Animals
  • Dale Jamieson, New York University
  • Book: Ethics and the Environment
  • Online publication: 29 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992053.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Humans and Other Animals
  • Dale Jamieson, New York University
  • Book: Ethics and the Environment
  • Online publication: 29 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992053.006
Available formats
×