10.03.2022

Relational Animal Ethics: Capacities and Contexts

AGENDA
  1. What is relational animal ethics? & more on Gruen (last post)
  2. Another kind of relational animal ethics: Clare Palmer

Clare Palmer, "Wild and Domesticated Animals"

Section 2 - Key assumptions and Key terms
  1. Sentience and moral status. 
    • "sentient" means "having the capacity fo conscious awareness and feeling" p. 8
    • "moral status" means simply "that a being's 'interests morally matter to some degree for the entity's own sake'" (p. 9)
  2. domesticated vs wild (many meanings)
    • tame and gentle vs. untamed and aggressive
    • living among us vs. living in a wild place
    • controlled by humans vs. self-willed or autonomous
    • bred by humans vs. not bred by humans  (Palmer's meaning)
  3. Two approaches to animal ethics
    • capacity oriented – how to treat animals depends entirely on an animal's capacities
      •  capacities = internal experiences and interests, individualistic
    • context oriented – how to treat animals depends on BOTH capacities AND context
      • context =  role played by humans in creating the animal, causing the animal's problems [relational]
Section 3 - Capacity and Context Orientation
  1. Peter Singer and Tom Regan both take capacity approach
  2. Palmer is arguing for the context  approach (p. 11-12)
    • you caused the harm to an animal, so you should treat
    • you adopted and made the animal dependent, so you have obligations
Section 4--Assisting Wild and Domesticated Animals
  1. Capacity approach; wild and domesticated animals are the same
  2. Context approach (Palmer): humans caused domesticated animals to be dependent on them, so we have greater duties to them than to wild animals 






Section 5--Assisting Wild Animals We Have Made Vulnerable (p. 14)
  • If we have made wild animals vulnerable, do we have a special duty to them?




APPLICATIONS

SCENARIO 1

 Do we have the same duty to save the dog and the deer?
 





SCENARIO 2

Some (not all) wild animals have been made vulnerable by humans – do we have special obligations to them?

Deer who have lost habitat

Birds after oil spill




SCENARIO 3

Should wild animals be protected from predation?