Leaving the ivory tower or back into theory? Learning from paradigm cases in animal ethics

H. Grimm

Leaving the ivory tower or back into theory? Learning from paradigm cases in animal ethics

In: Climate change and sustainable development

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H. Grimm

H. Grimm Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University Vienna, University Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria; herwig.grimm@vetmeduni.ac.at

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 439–446

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086867530_0069

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Ethical issues are per definition issues of public concern and interest. Media plays a vital role in presenting and shaping them. From the beginnings of modern animal ethics, paradigm cases – e.g. factory farming, laboratory animal science and fur farming – were used in the public debate and presented offensively. The moral wrong of these paradigm cases has a high plausibility in the wider public. Of course, nobody is against respectful treatment of animals. However, these paradigm cases do not raise the question of moral duties towards animals only. Further, they implicitly conflict with a wide range of values and provide the platform for the societal debate about values. Under this perspective, the character of the ongoing debate can be much better understood. Ethics can help to address moral issues in human-animal relations with explicit respect to conflicting (morally relevant) values. To focus solely on the moral status of animals in animal ethics loses sight of the related societal problem at stake. This position runs the risk of putting forward a perspective under which ethical issues in human-animal relations appear to be problems of the real world where moral outlaws mistreat animals for unworthy reasons. If our duties towards animals were the only duties we had, this view would be justified. However, this is not the case and a number of other values are at stake. Animal protection is an important value but other values like human welfare, gaining knowledge, etc. are equally important. Therefore, the moral issues of animal ethics should not be framed irrespectively of conflicting values and under the perspective of ‘the right treatment of animals’ only. In a wider sense animal ethics should use the frame of ‘normative orientation of societies’ in general. This shifts the role of animal ethics within society. I will argue in favor of a ‘healthy social distance’ or in other words ‘academic freedom’ that provides the basis for trustworthy mediation of societal conflicts without losing sight of practical demands. There is no stepping back into the ivory tower. However, looking at these issues from a distance can serve as a powerful source of philosophical insights that can be used in future practice-oriented animal ethics.

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Climate change and sustainable development

Ethical perspectives on land use and food production

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086867530

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 15 Nov 2012

Subjects
- Life Sciences

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Leaving the ivory tower or back into theory? Learning from paradigm cases in animal ethics

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Climate change and sustainable development

Ethical perspectives on land use and food production

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