More than harm: a critical analysis of the harm principle in Reganâs thinking

K. Keerus; M. Gjerris; H. RÃ¶cklinsberg

More than harm: a critical analysis of the harm principle in Reganâs thinking

In: The ethics of consumption

Authors:

K. Keerus

K. Keerus ¹University of Tartu, Jakobi 2, 51003, Tartu, Estonia

Search for other papers by K. Keerus in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

M. Gjerris

M. Gjerris ²University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark

Search for other papers by M. Gjerris in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

, and

H. RÃ¶cklinsberg

H. RÃ¶cklinsberg ³Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7068, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; kulli.keerus@ut.ee

Search for other papers by H. RÃ¶cklinsberg in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 273â278

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086867844_046

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

â¬42.00â¬35.00Â excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Tom Regan encapsulated his principle of harm as a prima facie direct duty not to harm those individuals who have an experiential welfare. However, his consideration of deprivational harm, the examples of which is loss of freedom or death, can easily be interpreted as harm which is not experienced by its subject. This creates a gap between Reganâs criterion for moral status and his account of what our duties are. We discuss how Reganâs understanding of harm relates to his claim that animals should be taken into consideration because it matters to them what happens to them and compare his account of harm with three basic paradigms of welfare known in animal welfare science: the feelings-based, functioningbased and natural-living-based paradigms. We argue that Reganâs account coheres with feelings-based paradigm and his account of deprivational harm does not exclude the possibility to interpret this as experiential, too. We will show a potential source for the confusion: in convincing his readers that certain cases of deprivation constitute harm to individuals even if they never experience it as such, Regan avails of the evaluative use of the term âharmâ: something is called harm only if it is (implicitly) decided to be wrong. Due to his ambition to argue for direct duties towards animals, Regan too easily casts off the alternative and â from our perspective â better reasons for considering the alleged acts of unexperienced and unknown deprivation wrong.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789086867844/BP000046.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

The ethics of consumption

The citizen, the market, and the law

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086867844

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 01 Nov 2013

Subjects
- Life Sciences

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	134	66	21
Full Text Views	1	0	0
PDF Views & Downloads	4	4	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

More than harm: a critical analysis of the harm principle in Reganâs thinking

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

The ethics of consumption

The citizen, the market, and the law

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics

More than harm: a critical analysis of the harm principle in Reganâs thinking