Ethics & animals

Numerous theorists from the fields of natural sciences, philosophy, journalism, and others have tried to provide a theoretical background in favor of speciesism. They have tried to justify animal discrimination and exploitation by claiming that the use of animals is completely unavoidable, and by predicting catastrophic consequences if such uses were brought to an end. Some, such... Read more

When making moral decisions, many people rely on intuitions and social conventions. Often, our gut feeling helps us decide whether to act in one way or another. This is often very problematic. We live in societies where speciesist attitudes and indifference for sentient beings other than humans, are still prevalent. As a result, many people find intuitive that this should be so,... Read more

It is often argued that in order to deserve respect from other humans, one must be a member of the human species.1 In other cases, religious or metaphysical reasons are given for why only humans should be respected and nonhuman animals disregarded. According to such views, humans have a special quality or circumstance that makes them more deserving. Examples of such claims are that... Read more

In the world in which we live there is much discrimination, of many different types. Discrimination occurs when someone is given less moral consideration than others or treated worse than others for an unjustified reason.1 There is discrimination against certain human beings based on their sex, skin color, sexual preference, and for many other reasons.   Discrimination is... Read more

The question of whether or not we should favor the interests of humans over those of nonhuman animals is at the core of animal ethics. The view that we should favor human interests has been criticized as speciesist. You can find more information about this in our section on speciesism. The claim that we should favor humans over other animals, and thus treat nonhumans... Read more

As the section on arguments against speciesism shows, there are different ways disregard for nonhuman animals has been defended. One way is by claiming that we don’t have to fully respect nonhuman animals because they don’t have certain capacities. These capacities are typically intellectual, or intellectually related, such as the use of a language and the capacity to have... Read more

There are people who argue that in order to be fully respected one must belong to the human species. In addition, those who reject the full moral consideration of nonhuman animals sometimes maintain an environmentalist viewpoint that values something different than the wellbeing of individuals, such as the preservation of particular ecosystems or species. The argument from... Read more

The argument from impartiality states that speciesism is incompatible with fairness. It can be presented against any kind of position that maintains that it’s justified to treat nonhuman animals worse than human beings. According to the argument from impartiality, maintaining such a position is a form of discrimination.1 The argument shows that the following three ideas cannot... Read more

Ethics is a critical reflection on how we should act and why. Animal ethics is the field of ethics that deals with how and why we should take nonhuman animals into account in our moral decisions. Different ethical theories disagree about how we should act in many situations. For example, according to some views it is always wrong to tell a lie, regardless of the consequences.... Read more

We all act in certain ways. Our acts and the ultimate reasons behind them are what constitute our morals. We act according to goals we intend to reach, such as increasing happiness (ours and that of others), reducing harm suffered by sentient beings, and benefiting the worst-off. Some people also act according to certain norms, such as keeping promises or telling the truth. In... Read more

Egalitarianism is an ethical theory that defends that a situation is best if the happiness present in that situation is distributed as equally as possible. According to some egalitarians, equality is good because inequality is bad in itself or because it’s unfair. According to others, equality is good, and inequality bad, because we should give priority to the interests of those... Read more

According to the theory of contractarianism, the moral and political principles we should follow are those we would accept in a hypothetical contract. Contractarians often present a scenario in which no moral or political principles have been accepted yet, and we need to find some of those principles. The contractarian argues that the principles we would accept in the scenario they... Read more

Virtue ethics The virtue ethics approach in moral philosophy defends the view that when deciding how to live, we should consider not what would make the world a better place or what norms we should obey, but rather what kind of moral agents we want to be. Virtue ethics focuses on moral character. It defends the notion that ethics is about the kind of person we are, more than about... Read more

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that defends that we should act in ways that bring about as much happiness as possible in the world. This theory defends the following three things: (1) What is good for individuals is that the amount of happiness (or satisfaction of desires) is as high as possible. (2) What is best overall is that the total sum of happiness be as high as... Read more

Consequentialists accept that, in order to decide upon a course of action, we must first weigh up the interests of different individuals who would be affected were a particular action to be carried out. Negative consequentialism is the version of consequentialism that focuses on reducing harms. It has this focus because it assumes that there aren’t things of positive intrinsic... Read more

Rights theories maintain that there are things we cannot do against individuals, because they are holders of moral rights. Having a right means having a special protection. It means that an interest that the right defends should not be frustrated. If an interest is defended by a right, it should not be thwarted even if doing so may be good for other reasons.   Types of... Read more

Rights are safeguards of interests that people have. Rights may protect someone’s interest in doing something without interference, in having access to a certain good, in not being harmed by others or in being benefited by others (see the rights approach). Rights theories concern what types of rights belong to or should be given to whom and why. Rights theories can refer to... Read more