READING: ANIMAL WELFARE
Professor's note about utilitarianism on the topic of animal welfare:
Utilitarianism goes back to the 18th century with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Bentham argued that we need to look at the consequences of an action...that morality should be determined based on the end result, not simply on a moral law one is following. For Bentham a moral act is one that maximizes happiness for the most and minimizes pain. Mill added that it was not just the most who mattered but we need to also consider the quality of happiness. So if an earthquake happened and 30 are in pain due to injuries one should not give the pain medicine to all but to those who really needed it. One should weigh the amount of pleasure against pain for those considered. Our modern day utilitarian is Peter Singer. He says we need to apply this to all areas of ethics, especially animal welfare. Yes, one gains five minutes of pleasure he would say from eating an animal product one liked, but then one needs to weigh in the pain involved for the other being...not just pain but death. Animals say Bentham and Singer should be part of our moral consideration. Bentham argued: “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" This is a very famous quote.
Note: one is not expected to accept Singer's views here. The point of the lesson plan though is to expand one's awareness to include contrarian views to one's own. This fits with the Jain's idea of anekantavada we learned about earlier this term.
Required Reading:
1. Peter Singer on Animal Welfare (approx. 5 pages)
2. Tom Regan's Subject of a Life (a Kantian view)
This short article by Dr. Lane is on animal rights...click on the link just above.
FILM: There is a film that directly goes with this article (8 min)....essentially same thing.
I want you to watch it directly after you read the article so I am placing it here instead of in the film section:
Why I Do Not Eat Faces Film (please watch; 8 min; REQUIRED) If you want to pick one and not do both this is fine.
4. Virtue Ethics (one paragraph to read)
5. BBC article: BBC Short Article on Animal Welfare