PHIL 345

PHIL 345 A1: Humans and Other Animals
Instructor: Howard Nye

Course Description

Are we morally required to be vegan? Under what conditions, if any, is animal experimentation ethical? What kinds of experiences and thoughts are various animals capable of having, and how does this affect our moral duties towards them? In this course we will explore such important questions about the ethical treatment of non-human animals. To do so, we will examine the bearing of such general ethical and conceptual issues as what affects our duties to avoid harming others, what makes death harmful and killing wrong, and what constitutes good evidence that a being is capable of various feelings or thoughts.

Course Requirements

15% Class Participation
15% First Paper
35% Second Paper
35% Third Paper

Tentative Topics and Readings

Basic Issues: Moral Concern, Harm, and Death

Moral Considerability and the Anti-Cruelty Argument for Veganism

  • Peter Singer, “All Animals Are Equal”
  • Singer and Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat (Selections)

Existence, Environmental Considerations, and Complicity

  • Alastair Norcross, “Puppies, Pigs, and People”
  • Singer & Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat (Selection)

Social Contract Theory and Kantian Ethics

  • Mark Rowlands, “Contractarianism and Animal Rights”
  • Christine Korsgaard, “A Kantian Case for Animal Rights”

Species Membership

  • Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing (Selection)
  • Shelly Kagan, “What’s Wrong with Speciesism?”

Death’s Harm and Population Ethics

  • Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, Ch. 4
  • Melinda Roberts, “An Asymmetry in the Ethics of Procreation” 

Death’s Harm, Persistence, and Well-Being

  • Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing, Ch. 1 (Selection)

Non-Human Animal Minds and Well-Being

Well Being vs. Respect for Nature 

  • David DeGrazia, Taking Animals Seriously, Ch. 8, pp. 231-257
  • Paul Taylor, “The Ethics of Respect for Nature”

The Distribution of Sentience

  • Michael Tye, “The Problem of Simple Minds”
  • Mauricio Papini, Comparative Psychology, Ch. 9, pp. 405-17

Beliefs, Desires, and Emotions

  • Jaak Panksepp, “Affective Neuroscience,” pp. 46-71
  • Victoria Braithwaite, Do Fish Feel Pain?, Ch. 4

Uncertainty, Intelligence, and Agency

  • Simon Knutsson, “The Moral Importance of Invertebrates Such as Insects”
  • Kristin Andrews, The Animal Mind (Selection)

Non-Maleficence, Rights, and Special Obligations 

Animal Rights and Constraints on Harming

  • Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (Selection)
  • Jeff McMahan, “Equality and Respect,” pp. 232-66

Animal Experimentation

  • Mylan Engel Jr., “The Commonsense Case Against Animal Experimentation”
  • C.R. Greek and J.S. Greek, What Will We Do If We Don’t Experiment On Animals? (Selection)

Positive Duties and Policies: Domesticated and “Liminal” Animals 

  • Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka, Zoopolis, Ch. 5
  • Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka, Zoopolis, Ch. 7

Positive Duties and Policies: Wild Animals

  • Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka, Zoopolis, Ch. 6
  • Jeff McMahan, “The Moral Problem of Predation”

Positive Duties and Policies: Legal Animal Rights  

  • Alasdair Cochrane, Should Animals Have Political Rights? (Selection)
  • Saskia Stucki, “Towards a Theory of Legal Animal Rights: Simple & Fundamental Rights”