Questions:
Are there moral reasons to care about wild animals? Are there moral reasons not to care about wild animals?
- What are the moral implications of (affective) sentience which we discussed last week?
Do we have different obligations or moral relationships to suffering that we did not cause?
Should we intervene in ‘natural’ states? What kinds of states are natural? How can we tell?
Reading:
Wikipedia, Appeal to Nature Fallacy (5 mins)
M. Torres, The Case for Intervention in Nature on Behalf of Animals (45 mins)
A. Mannino, Humanitarian Intervention in Nature (40 mins)
Animal Ethics, The Relevance of Sentience (10 mins)
Animal Ethics, Why we should give moral consideration to individuals rather than species (15 mins)
(Optional) C. Palmer, Against the View that We Are Normally Required to Assist Wild Animals (30 mins)
- (Optional) C. Faria, Disentangling Obligations of Assistance (30 mins)
(Optional) J. Mosquera, The Harm They Inflict When Values Conflict (40 mins)
(Optional) E. Paez, Refusing Help and Inflicting Harm (45 mins)