AQA Religious Studies - Ethics - Normative Ethical Theories - Animal Rights - Full in depth notes according to the specification, including quotes, key thinkers and everything needed to achieve an A*.
Use of animals for:
• Food
• Intensive farming
• Scientific research and cloning
• Blood sports
• Organ transplants
Speciesism - Discrimination in favour of one species, usually the human species, over another, es-
pecially in the exploitation or mistreatment of animals by humans.
• NML - Satisfactory - Aristotle’s Hierarchy of Souls - simple: humans have a soul, animals do not.
• NML - Unsatisfactory - AHoS - although animals do not have a soul, they still feel pain like us.
• NML- Satisfactory - consistent viewpoint - simplicity when it comes to what animals can and can’t
be used for.
• NML - Unsatisfactory - the consistent viewpoint allows for no room to make a decision based on
hat you know will have the best outcome - no bad act can be made to have a good outcome.
• NML - Satisfactory - easy to use primary precepts and apply them to animal research.
• NML - Unsatisfactory - primary precepts can be interpreted differently - some for, some against.
• SE - Satisfactory - weighing up situations individually actually results in preferable outcomes - dif-
ferent views can be taken for different aspects of the use of animals.
• SE - Unsatisfactory - John Waters - rules provide a “good anchor” without the rules multiple dif-
ferent decisions can be made - meat v animal testing - your view on what is loving may allow for
one and not the other when hey both result in pain and death of animals.
• SE - Satisfactory - personalism applies to humans not animals - makes it easy to see that ani-
mals can be used as a means to an end as any ethical decision regarding animals should be de-
cided upon by what is loving for humans.
• SE - Unsatisfactory - agape is universal and should apply to all living beings instead of prioritising
humans. Bentham maintains that having the ability to feel pleasure and pain gives humans - and
animals - moral status. Which means animals should never be used as a means to an end.
• SE - Satisfactory - Pragmatism - Something is pragmatic if it works and maximizes the level of
love. Using animals for a source of organs for transplant would be views as pragmatic because if
there is an organ shortage it could save human lives.
• SE - Unsatisfactory - this is clearly Speciesism - Peter Singer challenges the tendency to priori-
tise humans over animals. He raises the following question: Are human lives really more valu-
able? - animals are self aware an desire to live as humans do.
• VE - Satisfactory - clearly illustrates vices and virtues to a human personality - using animals for
the benefit or pleasure of humans would be a vice such as callousness.
• VE - Unsatisfactory - despite the normative theory illustrating certain virtues and vices it does not
convey effectively what actions constitute these vices and virtues - therefore it could be used to
justify the suffering of animals unnecessarily.
• VE - Satisfactory - It equips people to deal with difficult situations and find solutions - this makes
it good for use with animal rights as it has a high chance of resulting in the best outcome for ani-
mals and humans.
• VE - Unsatisfactory - It is not prescriptive enough. People may have underdeveloped virtue Ethi-
cal issues require immediate answers and there is the risk of extreme harm done to animals if a
person lacks virtue.
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