2.5.5: Modern Animal Rights- Singer and Regan

The event that publicly announced animal rights as a legitimate issue within contemporary philosophy was Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation text in 1975. Singer viewed himself as a utilitarian, like Bentham. However, Singer presents a direct moral theory concerning animal rights, in contrast to indirect positions, such as welfarist views. He argued for extending moral consideration to animals because, similar to humans, animals have certain significant interests. As such, we ought to view their interests alongside and equal to human interests, which results in humans having direct moral duties towards animals

Singer constructs his arguments based on the “principle of equal consideration of interests” shared by both animals and humans. Singer attempts to demonstrate that a certain property-P endowed to certain beings justifies their right to moral consideration. However, unlike his predecessors, for Singer that certain property-P required to attribute moral consideration, which historically referred to reason, language, consciousness, or a soul, instead refers to having an interest. Animals, like humans, have an interest in fulfilling their basic needs, but also in avoiding suffering, and thus we ought to extend moral consideration because they have positive and negative interests.

For Singer, the interest and capacity for sentient beings to suffer warrants moral consideration. Moreover, suffering is not arbitrary. In fact, Singer tells us, “The capacity for suffering and enjoyment is a pre-requisite for having interests at all.” Thus, the capacity to suffer shared by both humans and animals are to be seen as equal interests (not to suffer) that bestows both equal moral consideration.

Singer further tells us that prejudice based primarily or solely on species type is a form of discrimination, speciesism. Speciesism is unacceptable for the same reasons that racism and sexism are morally unacceptable. They all violate the principle of equality. The principle of equality, Singer tells us, should not be based on factual equality, for example, whether men are factually more intelligent than women, or arbitrary properties, such as superiority of species. Rather, he tells us that, “Equality is a moral idea, not an assertion of fact” that ought to be grounded on having significant interests.

To further his case, Singer presents the “argument from marginal cases”: because certain humans (“marginal cases”) may lack reason or language, such as a comatose person or an infant, their lack of property-P in the form of reason would nullify moral consideration to such “marginal cases”. Most would find this immoral. If the argument from marginal cases is sound, then speciesism becomes even more tenuous. Speciesism, then, like racism and sexism, should be disavowed. In weighing equal significant interests that results in the greatest pleasure or happiness, Singer concludes, our moral thinking requires us to extend moral consideration to animals. Singer’s defense of animal liberation paved the groundwork for subsequent pro-animal rights arguments.

Tom Regan’s 1983 book The Case for Animal Rights offers a non-utilitarian argument for extending moral consideration to animals. Regan uses the “principle of inherent value”, the respect principle, and the subject-of-a-life (SOAL) criterion for his defense. A simplistic formulation of his argument is as follows:

1. The inherent value and respect principles ground criteria for moral consideration and rights
2. If a being possesses traits of the subject-of-a-life criteria, then we ought to adhere to the inherent value and respect principles regarding their treatment
3. Certain non-human animals satisfy the subject-of-a-life criteria
4. Therefore, we ought to extend moral consideration and rights to non-human animals

For Regan, the subject-of-a-life criterion can be defined by the following: having beliefs, perception, memory, a sense of the future, sense of one’s own welfare, an emotional life, interests, desires, and goals. If a being satisfies these conditions, then they have inherent value. Unlike Singer, who uses the criteria of property-P as having cumulative interests to warrant moral consideration, Regan argues that each subject-of-a-life is an end in itself. The inherent value of the subject-of-a-life does not depend on utility. If this is the case, then no one particular interest can trump or override the inherent value of beings who are the subject-of-a-life. This focus on the inherent value of individual animals makes Regan an animal rights abolitionist because the conclusion of his arguments challenges the notion that utilizing animals for food, lab experiments, or entertainment for human ends is morally acceptable, even if such use would benefit and/or bring happiness to the majority of people. Regan presents one of the most philosophically deep and compelling cases for bearing moral consideration to animals.