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Animal Ethics Essays

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Animal Ethics

Animal ethics is concerned with the status of animals, whereas environmental ethics concerns itself with the relationship to the environment.
I will show the existence of animal ethics depends on the existence of environmental ethics. I will prove this by showing that such philosophers who have practiced animal ethics such as Singer, Regan, and Taylor are limited because they are individualistic. Which means they are limited to animal concerns, and nothing else. But with the environmental ethics such philosophers as Leapold, Wesra and Naess look at the environment ethics collectively. Which means they look at the big picture which includes the animals and its environment. …show more content…

Singer has also been known to show a lack of compassion and sympathy.
As stated by Westra “IT is probable that, at a minimum, instrumental values has always been ascribed to those animals which have contributed in some way to the human community down through ages...Still it is possible to raise doubts about sympathy, as many claim to have no such feeling, including such animals defenders as Singer”. Westra goes on to describe how Singer is not only unsympathetic to that of animals with intrinsic value but to those people in the third world. Singer feels that since the people of the third world are so far away that it is not of his concern. Singer wants the suffering of animals to stop because it is not justified, but what makes the suffering of third world countries justified? Because they are further away? Such individualistic approaches will not save the habitat in which the animals live and without that the environment will not survive. Singer is not the only one with an individualistic approach.

Another philosopher of environmental ethics Tom Regan also displays the individualistic approach. Regan believes in Cantianism. What that means is that the individuals have rights. Regan has modified it a bit to say that everyone is subject to a life. Regan believes that animal and humans all have intrinsic value, therefor they have a right

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