A rationally-rooted responsibility toward nonhuman animals
| dc.contributor.author | Webber, Matthew J., author | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rollin, Bernard, advisor | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gorin, Moti, committee member | |
| dc.contributor.author | Edwards-Callaway, Lily, committee member | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-01-11T11:20:06Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-01-11T11:20:06Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description.abstract | How 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. | |
| dc.format.medium | born digital | |
| dc.format.medium | masters theses | |
| dc.identifier | Webber_colostate_0053N_16287.pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10217/219515 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Colorado State University. Libraries | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | 2020- | |
| dc.rights | Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. | |
| dc.subject | ethics | |
| dc.subject | telos | |
| dc.subject | Kant | |
| dc.subject | animal | |
| dc.title | A rationally-rooted responsibility toward nonhuman animals | |
| dc.type | Text | |
| dcterms.rights.dpla | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Philosophy | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Colorado State University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts (M.A.) |
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