Utilitarianism and Animal Rights
Jacob Letourneau
110233960
July 22nd 2013
PP-223-OC1- Contemporary Moral Issues
Prof. Simpson
Long Essay
Utilitarianism and its Paths
The definition of utilitarianism is that the morally good thing to do is to pleasure the greatest number of people or animals for the least amount of suffering. For example you can rationalize killing a mass murderer before he kills even more people. Therefore taking the life of one person to save the life of many more.
There are multiple arguments for or against weather we should eat animals or not. On one side there is the argument that we should exploit animals for food because we need it to survive and make us happy. On the other hand some people are completely against exploiting animals and say that we should treat them just like we treat other human beings. And finally there are people in the middle who agree that for some things like food we need to exploit animals but for other things like experiments or amusement we should not. I will show you the arguments of the three sides and how utilitarianism is relevant within them in the paragraphs to come.
To start I will contemplate the side of the argument which allows animal exploitation for the good of human beings. This argument can be morally sound to a utilitarian as long as it makes more people happy than it does suffering to the animal. For example, let’s say that the exploitation of a lion in a circus that is doing tricks for a crowd. Now this lion is not happy and in some cases will be mistreated always in a cage and not free like lions in the wild, he could also be beat by his owner and possibly other people as well. But this lion is making a crowd of 100 or more people happy with smiles on their faces and laughter and amazement. Let’s say hypothetically that a child see’s this lion and falls in love with it which leads him to become a veterinarian in the future, and as a veterinarian he saves countless animal lives. Would the lion’s suffering not be
110233960
July 22nd 2013
PP-223-OC1- Contemporary Moral Issues
Prof. Simpson
Long Essay
Utilitarianism and its Paths
The definition of utilitarianism is that the morally good thing to do is to pleasure the greatest number of people or animals for the least amount of suffering. For example you can rationalize killing a mass murderer before he kills even more people. Therefore taking the life of one person to save the life of many more.
There are multiple arguments for or against weather we should eat animals or not. On one side there is the argument that we should exploit animals for food because we need it to survive and make us happy. On the other hand some people are completely against exploiting animals and say that we should treat them just like we treat other human beings. And finally there are people in the middle who agree that for some things like food we need to exploit animals but for other things like experiments or amusement we should not. I will show you the arguments of the three sides and how utilitarianism is relevant within them in the paragraphs to come.
To start I will contemplate the side of the argument which allows animal exploitation for the good of human beings. This argument can be morally sound to a utilitarian as long as it makes more people happy than it does suffering to the animal. For example, let’s say that the exploitation of a lion in a circus that is doing tricks for a crowd. Now this lion is not happy and in some cases will be mistreated always in a cage and not free like lions in the wild, he could also be beat by his owner and possibly other people as well. But this lion is making a crowd of 100 or more people happy with smiles on their faces and laughter and amazement. Let’s say hypothetically that a child see’s this lion and falls in love with it which leads him to become a veterinarian in the future, and as a veterinarian he saves countless animal lives. Would the lion’s suffering not be