This BA thesis is discussing the arguments of the philosophers Prof. Dr. Peter Singer and Dr. Helmut F. Kaplan concerning animal ethics, based on their main works - both being advocates of the animal rights movement and vegetarians themselves. Singer and Kaplan have been cho-sen not only for their representative status within the anglophone and german-speaking area respectively, but also since Kaplan has based his theory on one major aspect of Singer’s argu-ments while strongly opposing another. On one hand Singer bases his vegetarianism on the grounds of equal consideration of interests which includes the extension of the moral circle to-wards all sentient beings that can feel pain - the one and only feature having moral relevance - thereby using the analogy of racism and sexism to give focus to speciesism, a discrimination or prejudice against non-humans based on physical differences that are given moral value. On the other hand Singer is a preference utilitarian and therefore promoting actions that fulfill the pref-erences (or interests) of beings involved which explicitely involves non-human animals. Whereas Kaplan agrees with Singer’s stance on the equal consideration of interests, he rejects all utilitarian ideas since these might not necessarily lead to vegetarianism. This thesis further-more gives a short review on the history of factory farming, its consequences and likewise the idea and history of vegetarianism, eventually concluding 1) that living a vegetarian lifestyle might likely proving to be the only ethical alternative in the future and 2) that there is a need for the formation of a steady and rational ethical theory which should be based both on Singer’s and Kaplan’s arguments and might already be existing in the shape of Richard D. Ryder’s the-ory of painism.
Inhalt
1 Einleitung
2 Was ist Tierethik; was sind Tierrechte?
3. Fleischkonsum und Massentierhaltung
3.1 Geschichte und Entwicklung
3.2 Konsequenzen und Risiken
3.2.1 Die Tiere
3.2.2 Ökologie
3.2.3 Der Mensch: Gesellschaft und Individuum
4. Der Vegetarismus
4.1 Begriffsbestimmung
4.2 Geschichte
5. Die Argumente Peter Singers
5.1 Animal Liberation : Speziesismus und das Gleichheitsprinzip
5.2 Praktische Ethik : der Singersche Präferenz-Utilitarismus
5.3 Singers Personenbegriff oder Darf man Tiere töten?
5.4 Praktische Konsequenzen des Gleichheitsprinzips
5.5 Kritik an Singer
6. Die Argumente Helmut F. Kaplans
6.1 Reaktion auf Singer: Gleichheitsprinzip und Utilitarismus
6.2 Empathie und Moral
6.3 Die Mensch-Tier-Beziehung
6.4 Die ethische Weltformel
7. Bewertung der Argumente Singers und Kaplans
8. Zukunftsaussichten
Literaturliste
Abstract
- Quote paper
- Gordon Wagner (Author), 2012, Erst das Fressen, dann die Moral?, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/192113