_Vegetarianism版 - Book: Animals and the Moral Community: Mental Life, Moral Status, and Kinship |
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发帖数: 23737 | 1 Gary Steiner, a professor of philosophy at Bucknell Universityon, his book
Animals and the Moral Community: Mental Life, Moral Status, and Kinship
http://www.amazon.com/Animals-Moral-Community-Mental-Kinship/dp/023114234X
In a nutshell
More than fifty-three billion animals are killed worldwide for human
consumption every year, and yet we give little thought to the inner
subjective lives of animals and the remarkable extent to which their lives
are in important respects very much like our own. If we were to acknowledge
the fundamental similarities between human and non-human animal life—for
humans, too, are animals—it would be impossible for us to ignore the moral
implications of the ways in which we use animals to satisfy our desires.
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that “in all essential
respects, the animal is absolutely identical with us… The difference lies
merely in the accident, the intellect, not in the substance which is the
will. The world is not a piece of machinery and animals are not articles
manufactured for our use.”
The fact that human beings can conceptualize and reflect on their potential
and their subjective experiences while animals cannot has no moral
significance. This fact does not justify human beings in using animals to
satisfy human desires. In particular it does not justify human beings in
killing and eating animals.
http://www.rorotoko.com/index.php/article/gary_steiner_book_interview_animals_moral_community_mental_moral_kinship/P0/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22steiner.html?pagewanted=2&ref=veganism
We have been trained by a history of thinking of which we are scarcely aware
to view non-human animals as resources we are entitled to employ in
whatever ways we see fit in order to satisfy our needs and desires. Yes,
there are animal welfare laws. But these laws have been formulated by, and
are enforced by, people who proceed from the proposition that animals are
fundamentally inferior to human beings. At best, these laws make living
conditions for animals marginally better than they would be otherwise —
right up to the point when we send them to the slaughterhouse.
Think about that when you’re picking out your free-range turkey, which has
absolutely nothing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. All it ever had was a
short and miserable life, thanks to us intelligent, compassionate humans. |
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