difference of morality between hunting and eating meat.
1) Class,
I share the same viewpoint as Philosophers Christine Korsgaard and Bonnie Steinbock. To be honest, I don’t have much experience on the nature side. I have been camping or hiking but that is the extent of my knowledge. Watching discovery and looking at some videos online, I believe that animals are self-interested. In that aspect of self-interest, I believe that animals do deserve some considerations. For example, I know that lions are carnivorous and that they kill to survive. I would consider not roaming a plain where lions live because I know that it is their domain. They control their own fate in their own domain. In regards to the zoo, I believe that the zoo should be raising the living quality of the animals that are kept. The lions should be cared for because otherwise why not just let them live on their own?
In my mind there is a difference of morality between hunting and eating meat. Hunting is the act of taking a life. Eating meat is the outcome of the hunt. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the two. I believe that actually taking the shot and putting a fork in your mouth is different. The act of hunting leads me to the viewpoint of ecocentric and instrumental value. Respecting the animal in their domain is a branch of the ecocentric viewpoint. The hunt and consumption of the animal represents the instrumental viewpoint.
https://www.facebook.com/FansofAnimalRights (Links to an external site.)
The link above demonstrates my view points on animal rights. If an animal has done nothing to you, then the animal should be treated with some respect. There is a level of intelligence in all animals. If there is a provoking action from the animal, you have to take into account the differences you have and act accordingly. I think that domesticated animals should have a better living life then if they were living in the wild.
2) Hey everyone,
I would say I am a mix of it all. I know that isn’t the best answer, but really I would fall somewhere in between.
I think animals have intrinsic value of course, they should be afforded some sort of rights and a level of protection. But on the same page, I couldn’t begin to quantify or qualify what those rights and protections should be. Also, I feel they they could very well be instrumental. I have no issues with hunting and fishing, or any kind of textile creation from fur/hair or whatnot.
I would then say I am more anthropocentrism orientated rather than ecocentrism or biocentrism. I think I would label myself that, not because I necessarily agree with the perspective of the environment or nature has no value in itself, but I do think that I would say that I lean more towards the opinion that nature’s value is measured to what it can provide for us humans…if that makes sense. I also, would say that as much as I want to hold myself to some sort of moral standard, I am sure I fall short in practice and just ignorance to fighting or going against anything strictly anthropocentric. So yeah maybe I would be under the same ideological umbrella as Christine Korsgaard and Bonnie Steinbock just because I don’t fight against that approach or do anything that strictly makes me in line with the other two.
With all that being said, I don’t enjoy or condone zoo’s r circuses. I can’t morally get behind the idea of animals being held in tight spaces or areas especially when most of them migrate and move across such vast amounts of land/water. But, on the same page, I don’t know what would freedom look like for all non-human animals. We as a species are only going to keep expanding and growing in population, and with that comes the inevitable unsustainability in the freedom of other species, and I am not sure if I would necessarily go against that either…tough moral choices in this weeks prompt. I think I would be caught in the middle as it comes to hunting as well. I don’t like hunting myself, but I have no issues reaping the rewards (meat), and I do not mind other people hunting and eating meat too.
Here is a link to Farm Animal Rights Movement:
https://www.facebook.com/farmanimalrights/ (Links to an external site.)
“Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is a national nonprofit organization advocating for animal rights and veganism since 1976. For many years, we were the only national animal rights organization fighting for farmed animals.”
Although I eat meat, I am really behind the idea of animal rights (I know that is a little bit of an oxymoron), and I think FARM is a good example of a movement that is doing their best to advocate for the rights of animals.
Sanderovsky, Naomi. (n.d.) Module 7 Notes. HUM300: Ethics. Excelsior College. https://excelsior.instructure.com/courses/23709/pages/module-7-module-notes-environmental-ethics-animal-rights-and-genetics?module_item_id=2102302
3)Which of the positions described above best represents your own and why? What constitutes freedom for non-human animals, specifically? For example, do zoos and circuses hold the same moral weight? Are hunting and meat-eating morally equivalent? How might your approach to animal rights reflect an anthropocentric or ecocentric viewpoint toward nature, in general, and why?
Ingesting (no pun intended) Korsgaard’s views, I’m disinclined to agree with her in the aspect that humans alone face introspection. Who is to say animals aren’t self-reflective? She states, “Its perceptions are its beliefs and its desires are its will. It is engaged in conscious activities, but it is not conscious of them. That is, they are not the objects of its attention. But we human animals turn our attention on to our perceptions and desires themselves, on to our own mental activities, and we are conscious of them. That is why we can think about them…” Personally, I think animals are capable of much more than we give their brains credit. I mean, have you ever heard of crows giving humans gifts in exchange for kindness? That’s not an accident.
What would constitute freedom for animals is for us to stop using them as test subjects and poaching them. Zoos, Sea World, circuses, etc. should all be abolished. The days of seeing animals as oddities are long gone. Preserves should take their place.
I find myself leaning toward Tom Regan’s angle, where all animals have inherent rights. “…animals are treated routinely, systematically as if their value were reducible to their usefulness to others, they are routinely, systematically treated with a lack of respect, and thus are their rights routinely, systematically violated. (Regan, 1985).” I’d like to say I have an ecocentric viewpoint, but in reality it’s somewhere in between, considering I still eat animals, but I make the effort to make sure they were humanely raised and slaughtered, and that the products I use are not tested on them.
The link I’m providing (hopefully works) doesn’t involve eating animals, but the mistreatment of them, specifically horses.
https://www.change.org/pentathlonshowjumping
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