Immanuel Kant, an 18th century philosopher argues that human beings have an intrinsic worth that makes them valuable above all else, especially animals. In his argument, Kant postulated the soul as necessary for giving unity to the human person and found that it is not the human body that gives human beings their dignity, but their rationality and their status as rational beings and moral agents. Animals in Kant’s state of mind are a means to an end (the end being man) and overall have no importance. But if rationality is the key to being dignified, then animals are dignified organisms and in turn have great importance to this world than Kant gives them credit for.
Animals are rational. Based on behavioral dispositions humans have observed and studied such as hunting patterns and seasonal migration routes, animals make decisions based on their upbringing, experience, and current environment that best protect themselves just as a human would. When an Orca (the scientific name for killer whales) calf is first born, they spend approximately 10 years with their mothers learning survival techniques such as baiting their prey and following the leader of the pods direction before they venture off to begin their own family or pod. That is the same behaviors humans experience throughout their first 18 years of life. How can humans label themselves as dominant due to their ability to rationalize without including the rationality animals have that we simply do not and probably will not fully understand? The only difference between humans and other species are the direction of evolution taken to get us to where we are now. Eons ago, we humans had tails that aided in our survival momentarily just as whales had feet that aided in their survi...
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...ment in technology and economic shifts tune out. In the wild, orcas are peaceful examples of the beauty of life and its multiple mechanisms that contributes to its continuation. They go on living their lives without ever interfering with our own yet we have on multiple occasions disrupted their own. This now raises the question on whether Kant was accurate in his theory that humans are the sole rational agents present on this Earth because their actions and lack of consideration for the role, presence, dignity and meaning animals such as Orcas have on Earth also.
Works Cited
Rachels, James. "Kantian Theory: The Idea of Human Dignity." The Elements of Moral Philosophy (1986): 114-23. Print.
"Blackfish - Seaworld Bites Back." Blackfish Official Film Site. N.p., 15 July 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Blackfish is a well-known film about how whales were kept in captivity while being mistreated. This film explained the situation in more of a sequential order stating each event one after another from occurrence. This film was made to inform people of all the cruel and monstrous things that Sea Land and Sea World were doing to the whales.
Kant, Immanuel, and Mary J. Gregor. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.
Blackfish is a 2013 documentary attempting to elevate public awareness regarding the orca that are being kept in maritime amusement parks, specifically SeaWorld, and the inherent danger of their captivity. The film is effective because it raises a set of important ethical questions for the viewer while presenting with a necessary fact-based style of documentation that does not evoke gratuitous scenes of abuse in order to inspire sympathy, unlike some of the other films that are intended to raise awareness about animal abuse. The film focuses on one orca, commonly referred to as a killer whale, in particular by the name of Tilikum. The documentary begins as a group of contract fishermen hunt a family of killer whales off the coast of Iceland.
Johnson, R. (2013). Kant’s moral philosophy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition). Zalta, E. (Ed.). Retrieved online from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2013/entries/kant-moral/
As I have progressed through this class, my already strong interest in animal ethics has grown substantially. The animal narratives that we have read for this course and their discussion have prompted me to think more deeply about mankind’s treatment of our fellow animals, including how my actions impact Earth’s countless other creatures. It is all too easy to separate one’s ethical perspective and personal philosophy from one’s actions, and so after coming to the conclusion that meat was not something that was worth killing for to me, I became a vegetarian. The trigger for this change (one that I had attempted before, I might add) was in the many stories of animal narratives and their inseparable discussion of the morality in how we treat animals. I will discuss the messages and lessons that the readings have presented on animal ethics, particularly in The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Dead Body and the Living Brain, Rachel in Love, My Friend the Pig, and It Was a Different Day When They Killed the Pig. These stories are particularly relevant to the topic of animal ethics and what constitutes moral treatment of animals, each carrying important lessons on different facets the vast subject of animal ethics.
Cowperthwaite begins Blackfish by discussing the biggest accident SeaWorld is known for. The audience is introduced to a chilling 911 phone call regarding one of the whales and the trainers. It appeals to shock factor by stating “a whale ate one of the trainers” (Blackfish, 2013), this phrase is repeated a second time which adds emphasis to the context of the film. In contradiction
Being able to think and reason should be a primary requirement for deserving dignity and respect. With no ability to think or reason how could an animal even understand that it is being treated differently than other animals. Fukuyama argues this point as well, “Human reason…is pervaded by emotions, and its functioning is in fact facilitated by the latter.” Clearly moral choice cannot exist with out reason but it can also be seen in other feelings such as pride, anger, and shame. Humans are conscious of their actions, in spite of acting on instinct as other animals do. Animals do not contemplate any deeper meaning of life or justify complex mathematical equations or even think about the question ‘why’; Humans, however, do think about those things. It is our conscious thought that sets us apart from any other animal in the world. Yes animals have perception and problem solving abilities, but unlike they are not able to understand complex knowledge based concepts, although they can solve problems within their normal parameters. Every animal on the planet should have the ability to solve problems but only to a certain extent, the extent of survival. When a situation becomes a matter of life or death animals must to be able to learn to live. Survival of the fittest has ultimately
... to be a part of the human community and should therefore be treated not like humans, but instead as animal members of this ecosystem.
Kant’s moral philosophy is built around the formal principles of ethics rather than substantive human goods. He begins by outlining the principles of reasoning that can be equally expected of all rational persons regardless of their individual desires or partial interests. It creates an ideal universal community of rational individuals who can collectively agree on the moral principles for guiding equality and autonomy. This is what forms the basis for contemporary human rig...
Captivity is the state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved, according to Wiktionary. Every year, marine parks and aquariums, like SeaWorld, make billions of dollars through ticket sales. SeaWorld estimates about 70% of their total revenue is due to their performing killer whales (Jeffs). People visit from all over the world to encounter killer whales up close. “Their beauty and power, combined with willingness to work with humans, have made them legendary performers” (Gorman). In recent years, humans have gained the ability to tame and train these creatures. Killer whales should not be kept in captivity simply because it is cruel, unnatural, and dangerous.
The. Print. The. O’Neill, Onora. “Kantian Ethics.” A Companion to Ethics.
This view, that humans are of special moral status, is constantly attempted to be rationalized in various ways. One such defense is that we are not morally wrong to prioritize our needs before the needs of nonhuman animals for “the members of any species may legitimately give their fellows more weight than they give members of other species (or at least more weight than a neutral view would grant them). Lions, too, if they were moral agents, could not then be criticized for putting other lions first” (Nozick, 79). This argument, that we naturally prefer our own kind, is based on the same fallacy used by racists while defending their intolerant beliefs and therefore should be shown to have no logical merit.
Fred Feldman, 'Kant's Ethics Theory: Exposition and Critique' from H. J. Curzer, ed Ethical Theory and Moral Problems, Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth Publishing Co. 1999.
1) Feldman, Fred. ‘Kantian Ethics’ in [EBQ] James P Sterba (ed) Ethics: the Big Questions, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998, 185-198.
Humans place themselves at the top of the sociological tier, close to what we as individuals call our pets who have a sentimental value in our lives. Resource animal’s on the other hand have a contributory value within our lives: they provide us with meat and other important resources. In order to determine the boundaries between how we treat animals as pets and others simply as resources, utilitarians see these “resource animals” as tools. They contemplate the welfare significances of animals as well as the probable welfares for human-beings. Whereas deontologists see actions taken towards these “resources animals” as obligations regardless of whom or what they harm in the process. The objection to these theories are, whose welfare are we