Utilitarianism and Replaceability Or Are Animals Expendable?
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
THE NUMATA YEHAN LECTURE in BUDDHISM 1995 What Would It Be Like to Be Selfless?
THE NUMATA YEHAN LECTURE IN BUDDHISM 1995 Tom J. F. Tillemans What Would it Be Like to Be Selfless? Hãnayànist Versions, Mahàyànist Versions and Derek Parfit The University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY THE NUMATA YEHAN LECTURE IN BUDDHISM 1995 Tom J. F. Tillemans 1995 Chairholder The Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies What Would it Be Like to Be Selfless? Hãnayànist Versions, Mahàyànist Versions and Derek Parfit Calgary, Alberta The Lectureship The Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies was established in 1987 in the Department of Religious Studies at The University of Calgary to support and advance the study of Buddhism within an academic context. The Chair was funded by the Numata Foundation (Tokyo) and the Honpa Buddhist Church of Alberta with a matching grant from the Province of Alberta. Scholars with exemplary research and teaching records are invited to The University of Calgary for a term and in some cases for a longer period. The Chairholder is asked to give the "Numata Yehan Lecture in Buddhism" during his/her appointment. The Lecturer The 1995 Chairholder for the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies was Tom Tillemans, Professor in the Faculty of Letters and Chair of Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Professor Tillemans holds a B.A. Honours in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia where he became interested in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy. He travelled and studied in India before receiving a Licence of Letters and Doctor of Letters in Sanskrit, Chinese and Philosophy at the University of Lausanne. Professor Tillemans has held positions as research fellow at the University of Hiroshima, Professor at the University of Hamburg before being appointed as full professor and Chair of Buddhist Studies at the University of Lausanne in the section of Oriental Languages. -
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae Name: Daniel A. Dombrowski Birthdate: August 8, l953 Citizenship: USA Address: Philosophy Department; Seattle University; Seattle, WA 98122 Phone: 206-296-5465 E-mail: <[email protected]> Education: University of Maine, B.A., l974 Saint Louis University, Ph.D., l978 Books: l. Plato's Philosophy of History (Washington, DC: University Press of America, l98l), 217 pp. 2. The Philosophy of Vegetarianism (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, l984), 188 pp. Also Vegetarianism: The Philosophy Behind the Ethical Diet (London: Thorsons, l985), 188 pp. Forward by Peter Singer. 3. Thoreau the Platonist (Frankfurt: Verlag Peter Lang, l986), 219 pp. 4. Hartshorne and the Metaphysics of Animal Rights (Albany: State University of New York Press, l988), 159 pp. 5. Christian Pacifism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), 181 pp. 6. St. John of the Cross: An Appreciation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 219 pp. 7. Analytic Theism, Hartshorne, and the Concept of God (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 247 pp. 8. Babies and Beasts: The Argument from Marginal Cases (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 221 pp. 9. Kazantzakis and God (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 193 pp. 10. A Brief, Liberal, Catholic Defense of Abortion, with Robert Deltete (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 158 pp. Also Una Difesa Cattolica Dell’Aborto. Tr. Susi Ferrarello (Rome: Aracne, 2013), 157 pp. 1 11. Not Even a Sparrow Falls: The Philosophy of Stephen R. L. Clark (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000), 366 pp. 12. Rawls and Religion: The Case for Political Liberalism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001), 192 pp. -
The Profoundest Problem of Ethics: About the Possibility of a Profound Solution
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School April 2019 The rP ofoundest Problem of Ethics: About the Possibility of a Profound Solution Pol Pardini Gispert [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Pardini Gispert, Pol, "The rP ofoundest Problem of Ethics: About the Possibility of a Profound Solution" (2019). LSU Master's Theses. 4915. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/4915 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PROFOUNDEST PROBLEM OF ETHICS: ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A PROFOUND SOLUTION A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies by Pol Pardini Gispert B.A., Universitat de Girona, 2001 May 2019 For my mother and father, For as many books as I read, your actions are still my moral compass. ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... iv Preface ............................................................................................................................................ -
“Good Death” in Small Animals and Consequences for Euthanasia in Animal Law and Veterinary Practice
animals Article Philosophy of a “Good Death” in Small Animals and Consequences for Euthanasia in Animal Law and Veterinary Practice Kirsten Persson 1,*, Felicitas Selter 2, Gerald Neitzke 2 and Peter Kunzmann 1 1 Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Bünteweg 9, 30559 Hannover, Germany; [email protected] 2 Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Straße 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany; [email protected] (F.S.); [email protected] (G.N.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 30 November 2019; Accepted: 7 January 2020; Published: 13 January 2020 Simple Summary: Euthanasia in veterinary practice is often discussed as one of the profession’s major burdens. At the same time, it is meant to bring relief to terminally ill and/or severely suffering animal patients. This article examines “euthanasia” from a philosophical perspective regarding different definitions and underlying basic assumptions concerning the meaning of death and welfare for nonhuman animals. These theoretical issues will then be discussed in relation to laws and guidelines on euthanasia and practical challenges with end-of-life decisions in small animal practice. Factors which are identified as potential causes of the complex problems regarding euthanasia are as follows: the confusing framework for euthanasia in law and soft regulations; the inclusion of many stakeholders’ perspectives in end-of-life decision-making; potential conflicts between the veterinarians’ personal morality and legal requirements and professional expectations; and, most of all, the veterinarians’ lack of awareness for underlying philosophical assumptions regarding possible understandings of euthanasia. Different practical suggestions are made to clarify and facilitate euthanasia in small animal practice. -
We Are Not Human
We are not human The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Setiya, Kieran. "We are not human." Times Literary Supplement, May 24, 2017, News UK, 2017. As Published https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/parfit-we-are-not- human/ Publisher News UK Version Author's final manuscript Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115346 Terms of Use Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Detailed Terms http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ KIERAN SETIYA resting on thought-experiments about mal- striking new material on the morality of caus- into another. This is especially true in Parfit’s functioning Star Trek-style teleporters, actual ing and preventing harm. exchanges with Peter Railton, who is more experiments involving brain bisection, and The first thing to say about Parfit’s “meta- sympathetic than Parfit is to reductionism in Peter Singer, editor mash-ups that speculate about the transplant of ethics” – his theory of the meaning, metaphys- ethics, and with Allan Gibbard, who is more DOES ANYTHING REALLY MATTER? cerebral hemispheres. The basic idea is that, in ics and epistemology of ethical claims – is that, puzzled by the idea of ethical truth. Parfit is Essays on Parfit on objectivity the absence of an immaterial soul, what unifies unlike his dramatic conclusions about the eth- encouraged by the fact that, after meticulous 320pp. Oxford University Press. £30 (US $45). me over time – what makes me, now, the same ics of identity, it is not exactly new. -
Book Reviews
Book Reviews Robin ATTFIELD. Environmental Ethics. Cambridge: Polity, 2014. 278 pp. The counterculture of the 1960s gave rise to the plea for new moral values: a new environmental ethic. While some works in this discipline still give the impression that ‘environmental ethics’ is a label for a particular set of norms, Robin Attfield correctly points out that it is just another field of application of normative enquiry, which encom- passes very diverse substantial views. As such, environmental ethics has made its way into university and college courses, where it is accompanied by partly overlapping fields of applied ethics, such as climate ethics, population ethics and animal ethics. The first edition of Attfield’s Environmental Ethics appeared around the turn of the new millennium and was meant to assist students, researchers and scholars in this discipline. It intro- duced relevant concepts and issues and it discussed a wide range of relevant schools of thought. Attfield also defended his own normative theory, which is called ‘biocentric consequentialism’. Throughout the book, Attfield provided opportunities to pause and review the issues raised in proceeding sections. Furthermore, he offered chapter summaries, a glossary of key terms, and suggestions for further reading as well as useful websites. The second edition retains these features, but is fully revised and expanded, most notably with a chapter on climate ethics. This makes for the following outline: Chapter 1 provides a categorization of environmental problems and introduces theories about the genesis of these problems. Chapter 2 introduces the major contending views concerning which entities ought to be given direct moral consideration: only humans or all sentient beings, or even plants or collectives, such as species or ecosystems? Chapter 3 explores in more detail whether a concern for human good covers all that matters morally and inquires to what extent going beyond it is useful and even possible. -
A Set of Solutions to Parfit's Problems
NOÛS 35:2 ~2001! 214–238 A Set of Solutions to Parfit’s Problems Stuart Rachels University of Alabama In Part Four of Reasons and Persons Derek Parfit searches for “Theory X,” a satisfactory account of well-being.1 Theories of well-being cover the utilitarian part of ethics but don’t claim to cover everything. They say nothing, for exam- ple, about rights or justice. Most of the theories Parfit considers remain neutral on what well-being consists in; his ingenious problems concern form rather than content. In the end, Parfit cannot find a theory that solves each of his problems. In this essay I propose a theory of well-being that may provide viable solu- tions. This theory is hedonic—couched in terms of pleasure—but solutions of the same form are available even if hedonic welfare is but one aspect of well-being. In Section 1, I lay out the “Quasi-Maximizing Theory” of hedonic well-being. I motivate the least intuitive part of the theory in Section 2. Then I consider Jes- per Ryberg’s objection to a similar theory. In Sections 4–6 I show how the theory purports to solve Parfit’s problems. If my arguments succeed, then the Quasi- Maximizing Theory is one of the few viable candidates for Theory X. 1. The Quasi-Maximizing Theory The Quasi-Maximizing Theory incorporates four principles. 1. The Conflation Principle: One state of affairs is hedonically better than an- other if and only if one person’s having all the experiences in the first would be hedonically better than one person’s having all the experiences in the second.2 The Conflation Principle sanctions translating multiperson comparisons into single person comparisons. -
The Inconsistencies of the Replaceability Argument A
THE INCONSISTENCIES OF THE REPLACEABILITY ARGUMENT A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Humanities By CAITLIN MARIE BAUER B.A., Wright State University, 2011 2015 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL April 27 2015 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Caitlin Marie Bauer ENTITLED The Inconsistencies of the Replaceability Argument BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Humanities. _______________________________ Scott Wilson, Ph.D. Thesis Director _______________________________ Valerie Stoker, Ph.D. Director, Master of Humanities Program Committee on Final Examination _______________________________ Scott Wilson, Ph.D. _______________________________ Erik Banks, Ph.D. _______________________________ Julienne Weinzimmer, Ph.D. _______________________________ Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT Bauer, Caitlin Marie. M.Hum. Master of Humanities Program, Wright State University, 2015. The Inconsistencies of the Replaceability Argument. In this paper, I will argue against Peter Singer's replaceability argument. I start by showing how Singer's ethical theory of preference-utilitarianism leads to his assertion that everyone should be vegetarian, and later his conclusion that some animals are replaceable. To refute Singer, I argue that death deprives sentient beings of pleasure, and any other good they are capable of experiencing, so death is harmful to animals. Next, I discuss one last claim central to Singer's replaceability argument, that merely sentient animals are not the same individual between periods of consciousness because they have no memory or psychological connections. I refute the claim that they don't retain their individuality by arguing that their individuality is biological, rather than psychology. -
The Replaceability Argument
Uppsala universitet Filosofiska institutionen The Replaceability Argument - An evaluation of a utilitarian argument for the permissibility of purchasing meat Hampus Gunnarsson C-uppsats VT-18 Handledare: Simon Rosenqvist Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. The Replaceability Argument 2 3. Premise One: The Causal Impotence Problem 4 3.1 Causal Impotence 5 3.2 Counterarguments 6 3.3 Responses to the Counterarguments 7 3.4 Discussion 9 3.5 Conclusions 10 4. Premise Two: Living a Valuable Life 11 4.1 Two Theories of Welfare 12 4.2 The Lives of Animals in the Meat Industry 14 4.3 Conclusions 17 5. Premise Three: Alternative Acts 17 5.1 Environmental Effects 18 5.2 Human Health Effects 20 5.3 Conclusions 21 6. Conclusion 22 1 1. Introduction Utilitarian arguments for the permissibility of purchasing meat have a long history. In 1914, the British writer and animal rights campaigner Henry Salt lamented what he called the “logic of the larder” – the way meat purchases are justified by the alleged fact that they allow the slaughtered animals to live in the first place.1 Recent proponents of this view include Torbjörn Tännsjö who thinks that as long as animals reared for slaughter live valuable lives, the practice of eating meat isn’t problematic. 2 This type of argument is also described as one of the possible utilitarian arguments for meat consumption by Bob Fisher in his contribution to The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics.3 The thinkers who argue for versions of the logic of the larder model stand in sharp contrast to the large number of contemporary utilitarian philosophers who claim that the impermissibility of buying meat follows from the utilitarian theory.4 The aim of this thesis is to examine and evaluate the utilitarian argument for the permissibility of buying meat that I call “the replaceability argument”. -
Lecture 4: How Can There Be Personal Identity Through One Or More Lifetimes?
How can there be personal continuity through one or more lifetimes? Fourth in a series of lectures presented at Leiden University by Richard Hayes in the autumn of 2009 1. Introductory remarks .................................................................................................. -PAGE- 2. John Locke ............................................................................................................................ 2 3. Derek Parfit (1942- ) .......................................................................................................... 5 3.1. Statement of the problem ............................................................................................... 5 3.2. Discussion of the first belief .......................................................................................... 6 3.3. Discussion of the second belief ..................................................................................... 7 3.4. Parfit's conclusions ........................................................................................................ 8 4. Application to Buddhist views .............................................................................................. 8 5. So what survives the death of the physical body? .............................................................. 11 1. Introductory remarks Today’s question is: How can there be personal identity through one or more lifetimes? In framing the question just this way, I am opening up a can of worms. Much of this lecture will be examining some -
Wlodek Rabinowicz Derek Parfit's Contributions to Philosophy
Wlodek Rabinowicz Derek Parfit's contributions to Philosophy Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Rabinowicz, Wlodek (2016) Derek Parfit's contributions to Philosophy. Theoria, 82 (2). pp. 104-109. ISSN 0040-5825 DOI: 10.1111/theo.12088 © 2016 Stiftelsen Theoria This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66819/ Available in LSE Research Online: June 2016 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Derek Parfit’s Contributions to Philosophy Wlodek Rabinowicz In 2014, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Derek Parfit the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy. In its motivation, the Academy stressed Parfit’s ground-breaking contributions to theory of personal identity, population ethics and analysis of the structure of moral theories. The list of philosophers and logicians who have received the Rolf Schock Prize is as yet relatively short. -
Animals, Moral Risk and Moral Considerability
Durham E-Theses Animals, moral risk and moral considerability Tanner, Julia K. H. How to cite: Tanner, Julia K. H. (2007) Animals, moral risk and moral considerability, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2477/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Animals, Moral Risk and Moral Considerability The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. Name: Julia K. H. Tanner Degree for which thesis is being submitted: Ph.D University: University of Durham Department: Philosophy Department Year of submission: 2007 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author.