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Single Idea 17215

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights ]

Full Idea

I by no means deny that brutes feel, but I do deny that on this account it is unlawful for us to consult our own profit by using them for our own pleasure and treating them as is most convenient for us, inasmuch as they do not agree in nature with us.

Gist of Idea

Animals feel, but that doesn't mean we can't use them for our pleasure and profit

Source

Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], IV Pr 37)

Book Ref

Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. White,WH/Stirling,AH [Wordsworth 2001], p.190

A Reaction

Something a bit chilling about this. What if I decided that some people did 'not agree with my nature'? Presumably pleasure includes hunting? What was his attitude to bear-baiting?

The 33 ideas with the same theme [society's attitude to how animals are treated]:

8236 Avoid the animals you are going to eat, as it is hard once you have got to know them [Mengzi (Mencius)]
6005 Animals are dangerous and nourishing, and can't form contracts of justice [Hermarchus, by Sedley]
20857 Justice is irrelevant to animals, because they are too unlike us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
1779 We don't have obligations to animals as they aren't like us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
1868 The world was made as much for animals as for man [Celsus]
17215 Animals feel, but that doesn't mean we can't use them for our pleasure and profit [Spinoza]
19753 Both men and animals are sentient, which should give the latter the right not to be mistreated [Rousseau]
3730 Non-rational beings only have a relative value, as means rather than as ends [Kant]
21423 Men can only have duties to those who qualify as persons [Kant]
21424 Cruelty to animals is bad because it dulls our empathy for pain in humans [Kant]
20280 Large mature animals are more rational than babies. But all that really matters is - can they suffer? [Bentham]
21376 Philosophy treats animals as exploitable things, ignoring the significance of their lives [Schopenhauer]
14882 Protest against vivisection - living things should not become objects of scientific investigation [Nietzsche]
5915 Rights can be justly claimed, so animals have no rights, as they cannot claim any [Ross]
4133 Speciesism isn't like racism, because the former implies a viewpoint which belongs to no one [Williams,B]
20283 Killing a chimp is worse than killing a human too defective to be a person [Singer]
21022 The Capabilities Approach sees animals as agents, not just as having feelings [Nussbaum]
21023 We should respect animals in the way that we respect the animal nature in humans [Nussbaum]
21024 It may be no harm to kill an animal which cannot plan for its future [Nussbaum]
4295 We favour our own animals over foreign ones because we see them as fellow citizens [Scruton]
4296 Brutal animal sports are banned because they harm the personality of the watcher [Scruton]
4263 Many of the stranger forms of life (e.g. worms) interest us only as a species, not as individuals [Scruton]
4268 Animals command our sympathy and moral concern initially because of their intentionality [Scruton]
4276 An animal has individuality if it is nameable, and advanced animals can respond to their name [Scruton]
4277 I may avoid stepping on a spider or flower, but fellow-feeling makes me protect a rabbit [Scruton]
4278 Lucky animals are eaten by large predators, the less lucky starve, and worst is death by small predators [Scruton]
4279 We can easily remove the risk of suffering from an animal's life, but we shouldn't do it [Scruton]
4288 Many breeds of animals have needs which our own ancestors planted in them [Scruton]
4289 Sheep and cattle live comfortable lives, and die an enviably easy death [Scruton]
4292 Concern for one animal may harm the species, if the individual is part of a bigger problem [Scruton]
4291 Letting your dog kill wild rats, and keeping rats for your dog to kill, are very different [Scruton]
4293 Introducing a natural means of controlling animal population may not be very compassionate [Scruton]
4294 Animals are outside the community of rights, but we still have duties towards them [Scruton]