PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Speciesism
Document Summary
Moral rights : a moral claim that one can exercise against another. Rights give rise to a moral duty or obligation in others. Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- gives others the moral obligation to not infringe upon those rights. (other rights: not to be harmed ) According to cohen: only those individuals who are capable of exercising moral claims against others, engaging in moral reasoning, comprehending moral principles, etc . The question is not, can they reason?, nor can they talk?, but can they suffer ? : what matters is that animals do suffer and do feel pain. If you do not think so you are guilty of speciesism . i. Rats should not be given the right to vote, etc. It seems that we do have rights though: reply by opponent: we want equal consideration of interests, not equal treatment. Rats should not be given the right to vote.
