Environmental Philosophy, Lecture six

Animal Ethics

Animal ethics is a branch of philosophical (normative) ethics which is closely related to environmental ethics. The main questions discussed in animal ethics are:

• Are animals normatively speaking equal to humans?
  
• Are animals moral-agents, -patients, both or neither?
  
• Are animals persons?
  
• Do we assign different moral capacity and value to wild or domesticated animals?
  

Equality

• Are there descriptive differences between the parties?
  
• Ought we assign different value between the parties?

Singer

In his article “All Animals Are Equal”, Perter Singer want his readers to extend fundamental (human) equality to non-human animals. Singer compares our current treatment of animals to the oppression of non-whites and women in our own species’ history. Singer sees animals as moral patients and therefore deserving our equality of consideration.