Peter Singer: Animal Ethics

1. Utilitarianism
 Act as to promote the greatest happiness and
create the least amount of suffering for the
greatest number of people possible.
 An action’s consequences determines moral value

2. Preference
Utilitarianism
 Peter Singer (1946-)
 Utilitarianism - The morally right act is the one
whose consequences maximize the total
balance of happiness (interest satisfaction)
minus pain (interest frustration) when
considering all beings affected
 Principle of the Equality of INTERESTS

3. Speciesism
 Similar to racism and sexism, speciesism is a
prejudice or bias in favor of one’s own species
and against other species.
 Singer believes speciesism is morally wrong and employs
the principle of utility as justification.
 A prejudice or bias in favor of the interests of members of
one’s own species and against those members of other
species
 A pure speciesist would say that bc humans are superior
ANY interest is more important than the most
fundamental interest of nonhuman animals
 Torture (losing the interest of avoiding pain) in favor for
human interest (gaining the interest for fun times)
 In this extreme example, do nonhuman animals lose
more than the human gains?

4. Can we justify attributing equal
value to all human lives, while
at the same time attributing to
human life a value that is
superior to all animal life?

5.  although there may be
differences between humans
and nonhumans, they share
the capacity to suffer, and we
must give equal consideration
to that suffering

6. Give animals the right to vote?
 Where animals have an equal characteristic to
humans, such as in the ability to feel, one
must provide for an equal consideration of
interests
 but in areas where a species does not have
an equal characteristic to humans, such as the
ability to comprehend one political candidate's
views versus another candidate and then the
ability to express a preference for one of the
candidates, then Singer argues that we do not
need to apply equal consideration of interests
in that particular realm

7. Equality for Animals?
 Applying the equal consideration of
interest to animals
If X has more to lose than Y has to
gain, you not perform Y.
What do animals have to lose?
What do meat-eaters have to
gain?

8. “The average meat eater is responsible for the
deaths of some 2,400 animals during his or
her lifetime.
Animals raised for food endure great suffering
in their housing, transport, feeding and
slaughter.”
Jim Motavalli
So You’re an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating
Meat?, E Magazine, Jan/Feb 2002

9. Socrates said that "the unexamined life is not worth living."
Basically, veganism and vegetarianism are about leading an
examined life—really considering the health, environmental,
human, and animal consequences of our food choices, and then
opting to make choices that are in keeping with our basic values.
The most political act we do on a daily basis is to eat. - Jules Pretty
“Merely by ceasing to eat meat. Merely by practicing restraint. We
have the power to end a painful industry. We do not have to bear
arms to end this evil. We do not have to contribute money. We do
not have to sit in jail or go to meetings or demonstrations or engage
in acts of civil disobedience... here is an action every mortal can
perform—surely it is not too difficult!” - Roberta Kalechofsky

10. “Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
- Thomas Edison
“[Animals] were not made for humans any more than black people
were made for whites or women for men.” - Alice Walker
“Humans - who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other
animals – have had an understandable penchant for pretending
animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and
“animals” is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them,
eat them - without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret.” - Carl
Sagan & Ann Druyan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

11. “For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.” Pythagoras
“The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is
different.” - Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine”
“The time will come when people such as I will look upon the murder of
animals as they now look upon the murder of people.” - Leonardo da Vinci
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute.” - Charles Darwin,
Descent of Man
“A [person] can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if
[s/]he eats meat, [s/]he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of
his appetite. And to act so is immoral.” Leo Tolstoy, On Civil Disobedience

12. “There is simply no spiritual defense in either the Western or Eastern religious
traditions for eating meat.” - Rabbi Marc Gellman, “The First Hamburger”
“…he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to
confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own
practice may be, I have no doubt it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in
its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals…” - Henry David Thoreau,
“Higher Laws”, Walden
“Historically, man [sic] has expanded the reach of his ethical calculations, as
ignorance and want have receded, first beyond family and tribe, later beyond
religion, race, and nation. To bring other species more fully into the range of
these decisions may seem unthinkable to moderate opinion now. One day… it
may seem no more than what ‘civilized’ behavior requires.” - “What Humans
Owe to Animals”, The Economist

13. “People think of animals as if they were vegetables, and that is not right. I
encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a
vegetarian diet that doesn’t cause suffering….We must absolutely
promote vegetarianism.” - 14th Dalai Lama
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the
way its animals are treated.” - Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
“The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually
every major category of environmental damage now threatening the
human future—deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water
pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the
destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.” - Editors,
World Watch, July/August 2004