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Using Experimental Philosophy to Challenge Intuitions Regarding the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals

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Using Experimental Philosophy to Challenge Intuitions Regarding the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals New approaches in empirical animal ethics – using experimental philosophy to challenge intuitions regarding the moral status of nonhuman animals Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung der Würde eines Doktors der Philosophie vorgelegt der Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Basel von Kirsten Persson aus Hagen, Deutschland Basel, 2019 Originaldokument gespeichert auf dem Dokumentenserver der Universität Basel edoc.unibas.ch This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Genehmigt von der Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät Auf Antrag von Fakultätsverantwortliche: Prof. Dr. Bernice Elger Dissertationsleiter/Referat: Dr. David Shaw Ko-Referat: Prof. Dr. Walter Salzburger Basel, den 27.02.2018 Prof. Dr. Martin Spiess Dekan Table of Contents Acknowledgements _________________________________________________________ 4 Summary __________________________________________________________________ 6 1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 8 1.1 Philosophical background: animal ethics ______________________________________ 9 1.2 The animals’ moral status _________________________________________________ 11 1.3 Aim ___________________________________________________________________ 14 1.4 Related fields of research – demarcations and connecting points __________________ 16 1.5 The methodological approach: qualitative social science and experimental philosophy 22 2 Methods in Empirical Animal Ethics ________________________________________ 30 2.1 Empirical methods in animal ethics __________________________________________ 30 2.2 Beyond words – using toy figurines to analyse human-animal relationships. A summary of a pilot study. __________________________________________________________________ 44 3 A qualitative interview study on human-animal relationships ___________________ 58 3.1 Why we love cows, eat dogs and name pigs – relationship matters in how we treat nonhuman animals _____________________________________________________________ 58 3.2 The indignity of relative concepts of animal dignity: A qualitative study of people working with nonhuman animals _________________________________________________________ 78 4 Thought experiments on the moral status of nonhuman animals ________________ 92 4.1 Rationality, similarity, pain: Factors influencing moral judgements regarding nonhuman animals ______________________________________________________________________ 92 4.2 The relevance of species and relationships for the folk conception of animal morality – an experiment with rats and dogs ___________________________________________________ 96 4.3 An evil fairy in the woods - How would people alter their animal product consumption if they were affected by the consequences of their choices? ____________________________ 115 5 General discussion & limitations _________________________________________ 136 6 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 151 Appendix ________________________________________________________________ 153 Curriculum Vitae __________________________________________________________ 163 Acknowledgements This research was partially funded by the Haldimann foundation, Aarau. I was an associate participant of the Doctoral Programme “Law and Animals: Ethics at crossroads” at the Law School of the University of Basel. I am extremely grateful for the scholarship that covered, for instance, the travel expenses for the qualitative interviews, the payment for the crowdworkers who participated in the thought experiments and the software license I bought for the online surveys. My salary came from the University of Basel and I am grateful for that, as well. Many thanks also go to Playmobil® who were so kind to provide the toy figurines for my scenario building study. David Shaw as my first supervisor continuously supported my work. He was enthusiastic about an experimental philosophy project from the very beginning and further encouraged me to use innovative approaches, which I appreciated very much. It would have been impossible for me to write and publish so many articles in the given time without him. Though being in Scotland most of the time David was always available when I needed advice, help in bureaucratic matters or an exchange of ideas. Furthermore, I thank Eve-Marie Engels and Walter Salzburger for being part of my PhD committee; for their critical feedback on my annual progress reports and for the valuable hints to literature. They both encouraged me to continue with my project and patiently accepted my progress delay for family reasons. I am also thankful to Bernice Elger, who, as the faculty representative, not only hired me but also contributed a practical perspective to this project which led, for instance, to the inclusion of the Swiss concept of Dignity of Creatures. Many thanks also to other staff members of the Institute for Biomedical Ethics Basel: to Tenzin Wangmo who supported me in the coordination of the educational part of my PhD and the work as a research assistant, and to Daniela Vavrecka-Sidler and Anne- Christine Loschnigg who patiently helped with all administrative work – not least when they sent my laptop via mail when I was not able to travel to Basel – and who always knew where to find solutions for diverse problems. My time at the IBMB would not have been the same without my dear colleagues who kept up my motivation, passionately discussed with me in the Last Tuesday Club, participated in the pilot test phase of my studies and offered helpful advice regarding my qualitative and quantitative methods. I am especially grateful to Corinna Jung and Ina Otte who gave extensive feedback on my interview guide. Additionally, I was very lucky to find two students who collaborated with me on two articles: Sanja Babic on one about individual relationships and names and Rahel Appel on one of the thought experiments with the fairy in the woods. I appreciated their complementary perspective and dedication very much. Being the only person working on animal ethics in the IBMB I was very happy to find like-minded people in the doctoral programme “Law and Animals: Ethics at crossroads”. I had the opportunity to attend the seminars and colloquia of the programme and it was a great pleasure to be a part of this interdisciplinary group dedicated to various issues around nonhuman animals and law. Their critical feedback on my own research was especially valuable. Obviously, my empirical studies would not have been possible without the participants. Many thanks to the crowdworkers of the online thought experiments and in particular to my interviewees who not only took the time to meet me but also delivered insight into their very personal experiences and views. During the interview phase I learned a lot about concrete human-animal relationships but also about overcoming my own prejudices. The past years were not only coined by working on my thesis but also by my family life. Thus, quite a few people enabled me to enjoy both aspects. I am deeply grateful to those people who looked after my children during the long hours I spent at my desk – most of all to my new neighbours in “WIR auf Phönix”: Irene Manske, Ursula Emmerich and Bernhard Schawe-Bergjohann, who took care of my little son for several mornings. Of all of my friends, who deserve a thank you for being part of the pilot test phase of my thought experiments, for distracting me from work and family and for staying in touch with me despite the lack of time, I would especially like to mention Sebastian Pfeil and Till Holtappel, who additionally proofread my manuscript and gave helpful feedback. Profound thanks also go to my closest friend Hannah Schade - no one knows me better than her. She carried me through times of doubt and struggle, ensured me repeatedly that I could keep going and always gave me a detailed and critical feedback on my work and life decisions. Furthermore, I am sincerely grateful to my mother and father, Heike Persson and Gunnar Persson, who raised me to be the person I am today. I deeply appreciate all support and backing they have given me throughout different steps of my life, combined with the ability to let me go and become an independent person. I also thank my brother, Torsten Persson – sometimes nothing can be more helpful than his tongue-in-cheek remarks. Finally, a deep thank you is owed to my closest family members: to Uwe Holtappel, who has been at my side for more than a decade and has lived through all kinds of ups and downs with me – this doctoral project would not have been possible without his courage, patience and love; and to my wonderful sons, Arttu Malin and Jonne Kari. They taught me a new perspective on priorities in life, on working efficiently and living the moment. 5 Summary “It appears that reason serves a limited role in everyday animal ethics”. (Aaltola 2015, 205) There are few people who would claim they do not like animals or at least care about them in one way or another. Yet, human-animal relations are ambivalent, coined by partiality and ignorance, fascination and fear, scientific curiosity and abuse, closeness and carelessness. For this doctoral project moral intuitions regarding animals have been investigated with an innovative mixed methods approach. With the help of narratives from qualitative interviews, light is shed on complex personal attitudes
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