PHIL 1550 Lecture 9: Why Cohen is Mistaken (LaFolette)
19 Apr 2016
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To summarize: for lafollette, we must be able to predict that the practice of experimentation will. Note: the suffering of animals is definite while the benefits are merely possible. It is also noted that animal research models have misled researchers in the past (206) (205ff) experimentation. First, lafollette questions cohen"s claim that animal experimentation has yielded incalculable benefits. He argues that cohen would need to show that these benefits could have only been produced by animal. There is a selection bias present in this type of argument. His point: listing benefits and failures won"t help an argument without an account that helps us make. For the inference problem: it seems that animal experiments cannot give us confidence in predictions that these benefits (b) morally justify the practice. Cohen thinks that everyone will (a) acknowledge enormous benefits of animal medical research and. The moral calculus is more complex than cohen claims.
