Essay Essays (1598 words) - Social Philosophy, Animal Rights

Essay Singer's thesis is that we ought to extend to (non-human) animals the same equality of consideration that we extend to human beings. Here's how I think the main contours of his argument shape up: 1. The only criterion of moral importance that succeeds in including all humans, and excluding all non-humans, is simple membership in the species Homo sapiens. 2. However, using simple membership in the species Homo sapiens as a criterion of moral importance is completely arbitrary. 3. Of the remaining criteria we might consider, only sentiencethe capacity of a being to experience things like pleasure and painis a plausible criterion of moral importance. 4. Using sentience as a criterion of moral importance entails that we extend to other sentient creatures the same basic moral consideration (i.e. "basic principle of equality") that we extend to (typical, sentient) human beings. 5. Therefore, we ought to extend to animals the same equality of consideration that we extend to human beings. Details 1. The only criterion of moral importance that succeeds in including all humans, and excluding all non-humans, is simple membership in the species Homo sapiens. Singer argues for this simply by pointing to variation among humans. If we examine the usual characteristics that people say all humans, and only humans, share, we always find that there are human beings who lack those characteristics: Like it or not, we must face the fact that humans come in different shapes and sizes; they come with differing moral capacities, differing intellectual abilities, differing amounts of benevolent feeling and sensitivity to the needs of others, differing abilities to communicate effectively, and differing capacities to experience pleasure and pain. In short, if the demand for equality were based on the actual equality of all human beings, we would have to stop demanding equality. (173) The only characteristic that every single human being has in common, that no other animal has, is membership in the human species. If you want to say that every human is morally important, and humans are the only creatures that are morally important, your criterion for moral importance must be based simply on species membership. 2. However, using simple membership in the species Homo sapiens as a criterion of moral importance is completely arbitrary. Singer seems to think this is fairly obvious once it is stated. If there is, in fact, no relevant difference between your group and some other group, there is no rational ground for thinking that those who belong to your group deserve greater consideration than those who belong to the other group. Although it is fairly natural for people to use a criterion like this, Singer thinks the obvious parallels with racism are so striking as to invalidate that natural impulse. (This is a typically consequentialist way of thinking; you should consider how deontologists might look at this given the allowance for duties of special relationships in deontological ethics. Should common species membership be considered an appropriate special relationship?) 3. Of the remaining criteria we might consider, only sentiencethe capacity of a being to experience things like pleasure and painis a plausible criterion of moral importance. Singer argues for this in two ways. First, he argues, by example, that the other criteria are bad, because (again) they will exclude people who we think ought not be excluded. For instance, we don't really think that it would be permissible to disregard the well-being of someone who has much lower intelligence than average, so we can't possibly think that intelligence is a suitable criterion for moral consideration. Second, he argues that it is only by virtue of something being sentient that it can be said to have interests at all, so this places sentience in a different category than the other criteria: "The capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a prerequisite for having interests at all, a condition that must be satisfied before we can speak of interests in any meaningful way" (175). That is, Singer is trying to establish that if a being is not sentient, the idea of extending moral consideration to it makes no sense. This negative argument is important, because one common criticism of Singer is that his criterion ends up excluding humans who are no longer sentient (like those in an irreversible coma); Singer is content to accept that consequence,

Cultural Diversity Ewareness Essay Example

Cultural Diversity Ewareness Essay Example Cultural Diversity Ewareness Essay Cultural Diversity Ewareness Essay Many cultural differences abound in San Francisco’s educational establishments. The so many people of different races who live together in this side of the United Sates have rather a challenge seeking to coexist because of their cultural differences occasioned by their differences in race. faith. gender. societal position besides others. These differences pit the Whites. Latinos. Caucasians. Black Americans and the physically challenged against each other in their twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours activities whether it is in the educational establishments. in church or in several other societal organisations. A instance in survey here is the educational establishment set up where these differences are so common they threaten to acquire out of control. All these groups live in a province of denial because they are non able to appreciate their cultural differences. Pigeonholing coupled with distressing degrees of intolerance has adversely affected societal order in campuses since no one group is prepared to accept what they see as an act meant to devaluate them from from an otherwise well- significance different racial group. This has resulted in close entire communicating dislocation. One needs to be good acquainted with the several differences in the civilizations of these pupils so as to be able to coexist without these unneeded struggles ( Paul et al 1967 ) . Black Americans and pupils from foreign states chiefly from Africa. Latin America and some Asiatic states have most of the clip had the traveling tough due to racial profiling. Discrimination is meted against them and their response is denial and defencse. A few respond to this challenge utilizing minimisation. Most instances of violent confrontations on many campuses in San Francisco are as a consequence of these differences which are more frequently than non ignored by the concerned governments. Professionals managing students’ personal businesss should do every attempt to inculcate into pupils personal businesss work the needful accomplishments that conveying approximately multicultural competencies. for illustration consciousness and the cognition together with the necessary accomplishments so that the pupils can be able to work with fellow culturally different pupils in a manner that bears intending. relevancy and productive ways ( Pope. Reynolds A ; Mueller 2004 ) . Cross-cultural communicating is a large issue here as the different racial groups speak a linguistic communication that sometimes has words that do non be in the vocabulary of the others or words that bear different significances and this presents a instance of communicating on cross-purposes and therefore struggles are bound to be frequent. We are speaking about slang. parlances and idioms that are non common to all. A pupil from outside the U. S. will non to the full understand the significances of many words used by their native college couples occasioning a dislocation in communicating. This age-group has its ain set of linguistic communication that deviates from the common linguistic communication. the lone 1 they know and this brings misinterpretations among them presenting a menace to communicating. The physically challenged do non do good in many socio-cultural scenes due to heir disablements. They are left to steer through the tight and hard plans in the educational establishments on their ain. The defeat ensuing from these Acts of the Apostless of abeism makes them respond by manner of misplaced aggression ( Jaime 2004 ) . To this. they respond by gyrating to a corner to give the strong manner. and so make some female pupils. College young person has serious intolerance for some faiths particularly Islam. Most of them in this part few and tie in it with terrorist act. which is a really rough term to a fellow pupil. but still they can non avoid utilizing it against pupils from some Asiatic states or those from a similar beginning. Reding demands to be given precedence in deciding these assorted differences and prejudices. REFERENCES Jaime. ( 2004 ) . Toward Multiculturalism: A Reader in Multicultural Education ; Newton. Ma. Intellectual Resource Corporation. Paul et Al. ( 1967 ) . Pragmaticss of Human Communication: A History of Interactional Patterns. Pathologies and Paradoxes. New York. W. W. Norton. Pope. Reynolds and Mueller. ( 2004 ) . Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs ; San Francisco. CA.