Mary Anne Warren
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198250401
- eISBN:
- 9780191681295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250401.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter examines the sentience criterion, which has been defended by such utilitarian theorists as Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer. It argues that a being's capacity to experience pleasure and ...
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This chapter examines the sentience criterion, which has been defended by such utilitarian theorists as Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer. It argues that a being's capacity to experience pleasure and pain provides a sound reason for recognizing a moral obligation not to kill it, or inflict pain or suffering upon it, without good reason. Nevertheless, sentience is not a sufficient condition for full moral status. There are sound reasons for recognizing stronger obligations towards some sentient beings, such as those that are moral agents, those that are members of our social communities, and those that belong to ecologically important species that are endangered by human activities.Less
This chapter examines the sentience criterion, which has been defended by such utilitarian theorists as Jeremy Bentham and Peter Singer. It argues that a being's capacity to experience pleasure and pain provides a sound reason for recognizing a moral obligation not to kill it, or inflict pain or suffering upon it, without good reason. Nevertheless, sentience is not a sufficient condition for full moral status. There are sound reasons for recognizing stronger obligations towards some sentient beings, such as those that are moral agents, those that are members of our social communities, and those that belong to ecologically important species that are endangered by human activities.
Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175142
- eISBN:
- 9780231540957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to ...
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How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal rights movements. Beating Hearts maintains that sentience, or the ability to have subjective experiences, grounds a being’s entitlement to moral concern. The authors argue that nearly all human exploitation of animals is unjustified. Early abortions do not contradict the sentience principle because they precede fetal sentience, and Beating Hearts explains why the mere potential for sentience does not create moral entitlements. Late abortions do raise serious moral questions, but forcing a woman to carry a child to term is problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. These ethical explorations lead to a wider discussion of the strategies deployed by the pro-life and animal rights movements. Should legal reforms precede or follow attitudinal changes? Do gory images win over or alienate supporters? Is violence ever principled? By probing the connections between debates about abortion and animal rights, Beating Hearts uses each highly contested set of questions to shed light on the other.Less
How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal rights movements. Beating Hearts maintains that sentience, or the ability to have subjective experiences, grounds a being’s entitlement to moral concern. The authors argue that nearly all human exploitation of animals is unjustified. Early abortions do not contradict the sentience principle because they precede fetal sentience, and Beating Hearts explains why the mere potential for sentience does not create moral entitlements. Late abortions do raise serious moral questions, but forcing a woman to carry a child to term is problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. These ethical explorations lead to a wider discussion of the strategies deployed by the pro-life and animal rights movements. Should legal reforms precede or follow attitudinal changes? Do gory images win over or alienate supporters? Is violence ever principled? By probing the connections between debates about abortion and animal rights, Beating Hearts uses each highly contested set of questions to shed light on the other.
Wes Furlotte
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474435536
- eISBN:
- 9781474453899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474435536.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter functions as a preparatory overview of Part II as a whole. First, it historically contextualizes Hegel’s speculative anthropology in terms of developments in empirical psychology and ...
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This chapter functions as a preparatory overview of Part II as a whole. First, it historically contextualizes Hegel’s speculative anthropology in terms of developments in empirical psychology and anthropology from the period; second, it emphasizes the ways in which Hegel was fascinated throughout the course of his philosophical activity by the perplexing question of how anything resembling the free self-referential activity of spirit might emerge from within the coordinates of blind material nature. Simultaneously, it emphasizes not only the significant role Hegel assigned to the results of empirical inquiry but, more importantly, the thorough-going materialism operative in his analysis of the genesis of finite subjectivity. In this sense, the chapter develops a portrait of the other Hegel: one concerned with materialism, science, embodiment, and various forms of pathology which permeate the life of subjectivity.Less
This chapter functions as a preparatory overview of Part II as a whole. First, it historically contextualizes Hegel’s speculative anthropology in terms of developments in empirical psychology and anthropology from the period; second, it emphasizes the ways in which Hegel was fascinated throughout the course of his philosophical activity by the perplexing question of how anything resembling the free self-referential activity of spirit might emerge from within the coordinates of blind material nature. Simultaneously, it emphasizes not only the significant role Hegel assigned to the results of empirical inquiry but, more importantly, the thorough-going materialism operative in his analysis of the genesis of finite subjectivity. In this sense, the chapter develops a portrait of the other Hegel: one concerned with materialism, science, embodiment, and various forms of pathology which permeate the life of subjectivity.
Hugh Epstein
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474449861
- eISBN:
- 9781474477086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474449861.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This two-part chapter initially places Hardy and Conrad within the context of later nineteenth-century scientific conceptions of ‘Nature’. Both writers are shown in their letters and essays as ...
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This two-part chapter initially places Hardy and Conrad within the context of later nineteenth-century scientific conceptions of ‘Nature’. Both writers are shown in their letters and essays as equivalently committed to facing indifferent nature in a manner similar to leading contemporary scientists and cultural thinkers. However, in their search for ‘underlying’ truths both authors exhibit a powerful strain of subjective idealism which is entwined with the materialist and objective writing largely claimed for them in this study. The second half of the chapter explores the similarities and equivalences in how, with a fidelity to mood and sensation, Hardy and Conrad ‘face nature’ in their richly descriptive writing. Their ‘peculiar relation to realism’ is seen to value a sentience that is more comprehensive in scope and less cerebral than the human consciousness depicted by other nineteenth-century realist writers.Less
This two-part chapter initially places Hardy and Conrad within the context of later nineteenth-century scientific conceptions of ‘Nature’. Both writers are shown in their letters and essays as equivalently committed to facing indifferent nature in a manner similar to leading contemporary scientists and cultural thinkers. However, in their search for ‘underlying’ truths both authors exhibit a powerful strain of subjective idealism which is entwined with the materialist and objective writing largely claimed for them in this study. The second half of the chapter explores the similarities and equivalences in how, with a fidelity to mood and sensation, Hardy and Conrad ‘face nature’ in their richly descriptive writing. Their ‘peculiar relation to realism’ is seen to value a sentience that is more comprehensive in scope and less cerebral than the human consciousness depicted by other nineteenth-century realist writers.
Dominique Lestel
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231172974
- eISBN:
- 9780231541152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172974.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Lestel offers arguments against the idea that ethical vegetarianism is the only ethical approach to eating.
Lestel offers arguments against the idea that ethical vegetarianism is the only ethical approach to eating.
Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175142
- eISBN:
- 9780231540957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Abortion and animal rights raise overlapping issues because both topics concern the difference, if any, that membership in the human species should make for moral consideration. In addition, pro-life ...
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Abortion and animal rights raise overlapping issues because both topics concern the difference, if any, that membership in the human species should make for moral consideration. In addition, pro-life and animal rights activists face some of the same practical challenges.Less
Abortion and animal rights raise overlapping issues because both topics concern the difference, if any, that membership in the human species should make for moral consideration. In addition, pro-life and animal rights activists face some of the same practical challenges.
Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175142
- eISBN:
- 9780231540957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The pro-life and animal rights movements mirror each other: the former makes humanity a sufficient condition for moral consideration; the latter rejects humanity as even a necessary condition, ...
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The pro-life and animal rights movements mirror each other: the former makes humanity a sufficient condition for moral consideration; the latter rejects humanity as even a necessary condition, focusing instead on sentience. While good reasons are needed to justify harming any sentient being, conventional morality permits us to favor humans over non-humans with respect to affirmative aid, much in the way that parents may provide aid to their own children that they deny to others.Less
The pro-life and animal rights movements mirror each other: the former makes humanity a sufficient condition for moral consideration; the latter rejects humanity as even a necessary condition, focusing instead on sentience. While good reasons are needed to justify harming any sentient being, conventional morality permits us to favor humans over non-humans with respect to affirmative aid, much in the way that parents may provide aid to their own children that they deny to others.
