Theses and Dissertations
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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "animal"
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Item Open Access A rationally-rooted responsibility toward nonhuman animals(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Webber, Matthew J., author; Rollin, Bernard, advisor; Gorin, Moti, committee member; Edwards-Callaway, Lily, committee memberHow should humans treat nonhuman animals? One answer to this question arises from the belief that humans are superior to nonhuman animals, thereby giving humans a right to treat nonhuman animals however humans desire. In this paper, I argue that, while perhaps not superior in all categories, humans can be understood as rationally superior to nonhuman animals. To do this, I rely on Immanuel Kant's definition of practical rationality as the ability for an individual to set for oneself one's own ends or telos. Granting this type of rational superiority to humans, I argue that being rationally superior does not entail that humans have a right to treat nonhuman animals however humans desire, but that humans are limited by certain natural teleological factors. These teleological factors may be general to all animal life—both human and nonhuman as characterized in the Kantian notion of tierheit—or specific to each species and embodied by individuals of a species. Nonhuman animals deserve to be treated accordingly, and treating a nonhuman animal in a manner contrary to the embodied telos not only violates their telos, but is itself unreasonable, irrational, and immoral. I conclude by demonstrating what responsible treatment of nonhuman animals would look like when rooted in human rationality, as well as the motivation behind such morally responsible actions.Item Open Access Holding agriculture accountable: moral obligations in the dairy industry(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Coley, Christopher Lee, author; Rollin, Bernard E., advisor; MacKenzie, Matthew D., committee member; Wailes, William R., committee memberThe present social attitude towards agriculture is in disarray. The average person has developed more robust opinions about the ethical implications of agriculture; yet remains more removed from the actual practice itself than in any other time in history. Meanwhile, the growing popularity of "ethical" foods such as organics, GM-free, etc., show the public's growing concern with food. This tension has introduced several misconceptions and failed judgments about agricultural products, putting greater social and governmental pressures on the industry as a whole. Because of this, it is important for philosophers to consider the ethical obligations of agriculture and its associated responsibilities to incorporate moral values into its future practices. The goal of this thesis is to confront these issues by developing a historical account of the industry and its guiding paradigm, engaging the paradigm's moral instability, and then offering a means of creating adequately pragmatic, yet ethically rigorous solutions.Item Open Access Respect for patient autonomy in veterinary medicine: a relational approach(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Reyes-Illg, Gwendolen, author; Rollin, Bernard, advisor; McShane, Katie, committee member; Callahan, Gerald, committee memberThis thesis considers the prospects for including respect for patient autonomy as a value in veterinary medical ethics. Chapter One considers why philosophers have traditionally denied autonomy to animals and why this is problematic; I also present contemporary accounts of animal ethics that recognize animals' capacity for and exercise of autonomy (or something similar, such as agency) as morally important. In Chapter Two, I review veterinary medical ethics today, finding that respect for patient autonomy is undiscussed or rejected outright as irrelevant. Extrapolating mainstream medical ethics' account of autonomy to veterinary medicine upholds this conclusion, as it would count all patients as "never-competent" and consider determining their autonomous choices impossible; thus welfare alone would be relevant. Chapter Three begins, in Part I, by describing the ways we routinely override patient autonomy in veterinary practice, both in terms of which interventions are selected and how care is delivered. I also show that some trends in the field suggest a nascent, implicit respect for patient autonomy. Part II of Chapter Three presents feminist criticisms of the mainstream approach to patient autonomy. I argue that the relational approach to autonomy advocated by such critics can be meaningfully applied in the veterinary realm. I advance an approach that conceives respect for patient autonomy in diachronic and dialogic terms, taking the patient as the foremost locus of respect. In Chapter Four, I turn to issues of practical implementation, such as interpreting what constitutes an animal's values and concerns, and assessing the effect of positive reinforcement training on autonomy. The Conclusion offers areas for future research while refuting the objection that a simpler, expanded welfare-based approach would yield the same substantive recommendations as my account.Item Open Access The ethical hunter: how to consume animal life(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Flygt, Adrian A., author; Rollin, Bernard E., advisor; Tucker, Dustin, committee member; Callahan, Gerald, committee memberTo view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.