PHL273H1 Lecture Notes - Eating Animals, Jeremy Bentham
Document Summary
Ex: we say humans have moral standing and this then means that other humans may not treat animals in certain ways they might torture them. Anthropocentricism= humans needs should be considered first. Humans are being seen as most powerful species; even wild animals are seen as powerless; technology has limited our interaction with these animals because it separates us from them; like putting them in zoos. Intrinsic value= valuable independently of other entities or their interests. Extrinsic value = valuable relative only to the values or interests of some other entity. Even if we have no duties to animals we may have duties regarding them: ex: respecting someone"s pet b/c they are someone else"s property, ex: being cruel to animals can lead to animal cruelty. Another ex: since a man cant have an abortion it"s meaningless to talk of his right to have one.
