Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 哲學研究所碩士在職專班 === 95 === The purpose of this thesis is to introduce and discuss Peter Singer’s theory about animal liberation. Singer believes that some animals can suffer, and the avoidance of sufferings is a fundamental interest for being. He uses the “equal consideration of interests” as a basic requirement for equality and the ultimate principle of ethics. In ethical considerations, the same degree of suffering of different species should be taken equally. Intensive animal farming and most animal experiments cause strong pains for the animals only to fulfill minor and trivial interests for human beings. Therefore, intensive animal farming and animal experiments violate an ethical principle, which is the equal consideration of interests.
Regarding the value of lives, Singer takes a preference utilitarian approach. He claims that the self-conscious beings have preferences and those being’s lives should be protected by the ethical principle.
I also discussed criticisms to Singer’s theory, which can be classified into two types: (1) questions from the view that animals have rights, (2) questions from the environmental holism.
The final component of utilitarian morality is the idea that we must treat each person’s welfare as equally important. It has troublesome implications. One problem is that the requirement of “equal concern” places too great a demand on us; another problem is that it disrupts our personal relationships. A more sensible approach might be to say that ethical life includes both caring personal relationships and a benevolent concern for people generally. I took the approach, I would interpret the ethics of care as a supplement to utilitarian theory rather than as a replacement for its.
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