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Peter Singer Animal Liberation Essay

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This argument: that rational beings must be considered ends in themselves, was the lifeblood of the movements of the 1970s that sought to bring oppressed groups under the umbrella of equal moral consideration. These prolonged and often violent debates revolved around demands for equality through which oppressed groups could attain their liberation. As such it is not surprising that the movement for animal liberation stems from these concerns. In fact, they are explicitly allied with them. Peter Singer’s seminal text Animal liberation is deliberately called so to evoke memories of the fortitude and determination of these earlier movements for human liberation. Singer emphasises rationality and self-consciousness of some animals as evidence …show more content…

Fifteen minutes later, when Goliath got up and left, Figan without a moment’s hesitation went over and collected the banana. Quite obviously, he had sized up the whole situation: if he had climbed for the fruit earlier, Goliath would almost certainly have snatched it away, If he had remained close to the banana, he would probably have looked at it from time. Chimps are very quick to notice and interpret the eye movements of their fellows, and Goliath would possibly, therefore, have seen the fruit himself. And so Figan had not only refrained from instantly gratifying hiss desire but had also gone away so that he could not ‘give the game away’ by looking at the banana.’ the police dog here: Often when one observes the behaviour of non-human animals and concludes that it is likely that they are going through some thought process that is unlikely to be dissimilar to our own, it is called anthropomorphising: falsely ascribing human characteristics to a non-human animal. The distinction between human and person allows us to make the claim that both humans and some non-human animals display particular characteristics that place them under the category of personhood. It provides a sobering and humble approach to understanding our (human) place in relation to non-humans. Animal liberationists conclude

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