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Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Allowing Animal Rights: Contra Natural Law Arguments, Rachel Tobias
Allowing Animal Rights: Contra Natural Law Arguments, Rachel Tobias
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Natural Law theories dominate the way in which humans view their relationships with other animals. Natural Law theories, commenced by Aristotle, claim that rationality is the morally relevant feature that differentiates humans from other animals. As a result, human beings often use non-human animals at their disposal, which has propelled factory farming and the mistreatment of animals. The term, "Speciesism" describes unjustified mistreatment of a species based on species membership. This essay examines the origin of Speciesism, as it relates to Natural Law theories. Additionally, the text discusses the negative consequences of Speciesism and the arbitrariness of omitting non-human animals …
How Should We Conceptualize Moral Disagreements About Animals?, Kristian Cantens
How Should We Conceptualize Moral Disagreements About Animals?, Kristian Cantens
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
I intend this paper as a sort of philosophical reflection on my experiences as an animal activist. In my three years of doing outreach on college campuses, I came to an increasing appreciation for what Murdoch referred to as “the difficulty and complexity of the moral life and the opacity of persons” (Murdoch 1998d, 293). This appreciation came in turn at the cost of an increasing disappointment with many of the philosophers I admired at the time – namely, Peter Singer and Tom Regan. What I came to understand is that many of these contemporary moral theories were in fact …