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Social Work, Independent Realities & the Circle

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Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2006 Social work, independent realities & the circle of moral considerability: Respect for humans, animals & the natural world Thomas D. Ryan Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Ryan, T. D. (2006). Social work, independent realities & the circle of moral considerability: Respect for humans, animals & the natural world. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/97 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/97 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. SOCIAL WORK, INDEPENDENT REALITIES & THE CIRCLE OF MORAL CONSIDERABILITY: RESPECT FOR HUMANS, ANIMALS & THE NATURAL WORLD. DOCTORAL THESIS Re-Submitted by THOMAS DAVID ANTHONY RYAN May 2006 SUPERVISOR - DR. PAULINE MEEMEDUMA DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (HUMAN SERVICES) EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY BUNBURY WESTERN AUSTRALIA. i COPYRIGHT AND DECLARATION This copy is the property of Edith Cowan University. However the literary rights of the author must also be respected. If any passage from this thesis is quoted or closely paraphrased in a paper or written work prepared by the user, the source of the passage must be acknowledged in the work. If the user desires to publish a paper or written work containing passages copied or closely paraphrased from this thesis, which passages would in total constitute an infringing copy for the purpose of the Copyright Act, he or she must first obtain the written permission of the author to do so. ii DEDICATION To my beloved wife Blanca, our beloved children Thomas-Liam, Jude, Immogen & Mirabehn, our much loved Gran, and last but not least, our cherished Simone, Tessa, Lucy, Jayke, Clarabelle, Matilda, Marge, the chooks and ducks (who all go to make up the wider Ryan Household), the loves of my life. man, to be truly man, must cease to abnegate his common fellowship with all living nature. - Henry S. Salt (1894:104) The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Mohandas Gandhi (in Wynne-Tyson, 1985:91) We are not of another, radically different kind. Ties of loyalty may bind us to particular non-humans as much as to particular humans. When we open our eyes to see the reality of another creature, and so learn to respect its being, that other creature may as easily be non-human. Those who would live virtuously, tradition tells us, must seek to allow each creature its own place, and to appreciate the beauty of the whole. - Stephen R. L. Clark (1994c:30) iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first and foremost express my profound gratitude to my dearest wife Blanca, without whose selfless sacrifice, unwavering support, encouragement, love and understanding this thesis would never have been undertaken, let alone completed. She has been my steadfast companion on each and every step of this (and life's) journey, and this thesis is as much Blanca's, as it is my own. I especially thank our beloved children Thomas-Liam (in particular for all his patient assistance with all things computer related), Jude, Immogen & Mirabehn (my resident computer maestro) for their unstinting moral support, and for their ongoing interest in what must have come to seem to them to be (quite understandably!) a never-ending project. For all this, and much more besides, I am indebted to them, and now look forward to repaying their understanding by sharing more fully in their lives. I thank Gran not only for her considerable support throughout this project, but for imbuing me, from my earliest days, with a desire for understanding and wisdom, goodness and truth, and for bestowing upon me (along with Cha) unconditional love throughout all the days of my life. Without all of this, and her unswerving belief in me (she always did impress upon me that “You’re as good as the next bloke”), I could not have achieved what I have. The successful completion of this doctorate would have meant more to her than anyone. I thank my parents Tom & Catherine for being exemplars of essential goodness and truthfulness, and for their many sacrifices borne so selflessly in the love of their children. iv I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Pauline Meemeduma for her supervision of my thesis. Her insightful and perceptive contributions and suggestions have made this thesis a far better piece of work than it would otherwise have been, and her unremitting faith in my abilities has been of immeasurable value. Finally, I express my appreciation to all the library staff at Edith Cowan University for their every assistance and attention to detail, which was always far above and beyond the call of duty. Last, but by no means least, I dedicate this thesis to Cilla, Tessa, Simone, Lucy, Jayke & Clarabelle (and the ducks and chooks!), much loved members of my wider household. Wherever in the world of animals there is a psychology with which to empathize, a personality whose welfare can be affected by what we do (or fail to do), there the feelings of love and compassion, of justice and protection must find a home. - Tom Regan (1986b:93). v ABSTRACT Social work's conceptualization as to what it is that entitles an individual or entity to moral consideration, or as having moral status, is thoroughly anthropocentric, and is articulated in complete disregard of the context of our fundamental evolutionary continuity and our embeddedness within an evolving natural world, and flies in the face of the reality that we already inhabit mixed communities and a wider household. It is deemed to be obvious that we are islands of moral value in an otherwise valueless natural world. The reality that we too are animals has yet to be fully acknowledged, let alone the moral and ethical implications of this fact given due consideration. We, as a discipline, have yet to engage in reflection upon a deeper understanding of what constitutes the right moral relations we might have with fellow animals. Social work's worldview has far reaching implications for the discipline's understanding of the nature of morality and subjectivity, and critically shapes how we understand not only our own nature but that of other species, as well an appreciation of our place within the natural world; for “If we do not grasp our links with that world, we cannot properly understand ourselves” (Midgley,1994b:14). Social work, whilst ostensibly discarding religious notions of our unique value, embraces the humanist dogma that human dignity demands an irrevocable divide between humankind and all other species, and decrees that respect is owed only to our conspecifics. Such an undertaking is fundamentally at odds with the reality of our evolutionary continuity, and this rupture serves to misrepresent our understanding of human nature, subjectivity and motivation, let alone that of our fellow animals. Accordingly, this thesis is fundamentally concerned with identifying which entities social work has chosen to incorporate within its moral universe, and to discern its rationale for moral inclusion and exclusion. It is not enough to assume it obvious, for such an assumption is nothing more than a disingenuous device to secure the a priori demand for human uniqueness. Indeed it will be argued that social work (in theory, if not always in practice) accords moral centrality to subjectivity, with the notion of the individual being an end in vi himself/herself serving as the discipline's sovereign moral value. This fact, independent of a subject's attributes or qualities, grounds the inclusion of all human beings, and unless recourse is made to arbitrary criteria or speciesist prejudices, allows for the extension of moral consideration to be accorded to all subjective beings, independent of their species membership. There is a reality that transcends us, and there are realities independent of us. The practical relevance of this thesis resides in the reality that social workers, knowingly or not, routinely work within a wider household, one that includes many other independent realities. That this fact is rarely acknowledged, let alone reflected upon, all too often results in an ossification of social workers' moral faculties, and culminates in an attitude of moral indifference to the welfare and well-being of fellow animals. This thesis entreats social work to adopt and embrace as its sovereign moral principle a respect for all subjective beings as ends in themselves, whatever their species membership, and a respect for the natural world in which all species are embedded. Therein rests our dignity. each creature is the outward sign of an equal soul, and to be respected as such.
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