Of mice and Kant: re-examining moral considerability to non-human animals on Kant's cognitive grounds
Date
2014
Authors
Easley, William Eric, author
Rollin, Bernard E., advisor
Kneller, Jane, committee member
Volbrecht, Vicki J., committee member
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Abstract
In this thesis, I examine Kant's criterion for moral considerability in light of the intersection between the moral, critical, and epistemic principles Kant commits himself to and evidence of advanced cognitive capacities in non-human animals. As I argue, Kant's denial of crucial cognitive capacities in non-human animals represents a flawed attempt at applying a principle of parsimony which threatens to undermine the transcendental base of his theories. Further, expelling the anachronisms and human exceptionalism Kant fell victim to in his theories reveals a robust sense of ethical duties directly to non-human animals, beyond non-cruelty. In Chapter One, I argue that the basis of moral considerability in Kant's ethics ought to extend directly to non-human animals if they possess sufficient degrees of the three cognitive capacities that comprise dignity and the ability to meaningfully set ends: reason, autonomy, and self-consciousness. In Chapter Two, I examine Kant's cognitive theory and argue that it lacks a developmental account in terms of degrees of these capacities that is crucial to completing Kant's ethical project. In Chapters Three and Four, I develop a model for such an account based upon evidence and theories in the philosophy of mind and the sciences, concluding that many non-human animals do possess advanced cognitive capacities and the we, thus, have moral duties directly to most non-human animals.
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Subject
cognition
animal cognition
animals
ethics
Kant
self-consciousness