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10.02.2020

MODULE V: GRADATIONALISM/REVIEW

10.2 Midterm Prep & Gradationalists

MIDTERM PREP
  • study guide in modules
  • use blog & slides!
  • can take practice quiz, but no longer for credit; read feedback
  • ~8 short answer questions

PRACTICE QUIZ FEEDBACK
  1. Arguments
    • standard procedure
    • don't focus on conclusion
    • sound, valid (don't need to use)
  2. DeWaal methodology
    • anthropomorphism (misattributing human qualities)
    • Morgan's Canon
    • Cognitive Rippling
  3. Kant
    • NO duties to animals; they're really indirect duties TO PEOPLE
  4. Singer
    • speciesism = speesheeszism
    • principle of equality, utilitarianism
    • NO RIGHTS
    • p. 53 -- killing vs. suffering
  5. Episodic memory
    • like a movie about the past in your mind--recollection of yourself doing something, being somewhere
    • compare knowing that Sacramento is the capital of California
  6. Planning for future
    • we talked about dogs and cats but DeWaal didn't
  7. Dawkins argument--read feedback built into quiz
  8. Any questions?

THREE TYPES OF ANIMAL ETHICS


  1. DEMOTERS – humans on a pedestal above animals
    • Aristotle – natural order
    • Descartes – animal machines
    • Kant – indirect duty view (duties are to people)
    • Carruthers – social contract, no moral standing
  2. ANIMALISTS – all animals (human and non-human) are equal 
    • Peter Singer – equal consideration of interests
    • Donaldson & Kymlicka – equal negative rights
    • Gruen – based on empathy, not arguments
  3. GRADATIONALISTS – elevate animals, but put in multiple categories
    • Jeff McMahan – killing animals vs. killing humans; largely mentality based
    • Ric O'Berry (The Cove) – Should add special animals like dolphins to a humans-plus category; mentality based
    • Donaldson & Kymlicka – those in the three categories have same negative rights but different positive rights; "political categories"; not mentality based




D&K: ANIMAL CATEGORIES MODELED ON HUMAN POLITICAL CATEGORIES 

  1. Human citizens – 
    • have secure right of residence in a particular nation
    • have access to public spaces
    • are those for whose sake the state governs
    • are those who participate in political process
  2. Human denizens (or "liminal denizens") – 
    • People visiting as tourists, workers, foreign students, refugees. 
    • same negative rights, but fewer positive rights
    • liminal = "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold"; denizen--"one that frequents a place"). 
  3. Human foreigners (in other countries) – 
    • same negative rights as citizens and denizens, but even weaker positive rights relative to us. We have to do less for them.

1. ANIMAL CITIZENS

  • Pets and other domesticated animals (cows, pigs, chickens, horses, etc.) –citizens because we've made them dependent on us and they have no other form of existence.  Plus they're capable of a peaceful, cooperative relationship with us.
  • they have a right to be in public spaces (Paris vs. Dallas) 
  • pets should be socialized
  • should have access to medical care 
  • animal citizens should contribute to society, but no exploitation
  • non-exploitative:  contribute manure, sheep grazing a field, backyard chickens for eggs, sheep for wool if shorn humanely  (other rights authors: must be exploitative because they can't consent)
  • exploitative:  most farming and research; using animals as guide dogs and other assistance animals
    2. ANIMAL LIMINAL DENIZENS
    • They are drawn to human communities but don't have to be "let in" as citizens
    • Still have basic negative rights

    3. WILD ANIMAL SOVEREIGNS