Personhood, Ethics, and Animal Cognition: Situating Animals in Hare's Two Level Utilitarianism

334 Pages·2012·1.84 MB·English

by  Gary E. Varner

Personhood, Ethics, and Animal Cognition
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Personhood, Ethics, and
Animal Cognition
situating animals in hare’s
two-level utilitarianism
Gary E. Varner
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2012 Oxford University Press
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Varner, Gary E. (Gary Edward), 1957-
Personhood, ethics, and animal cognition : situating animals in Hare’s two level utilitarianism / Gary E. Varner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 978-0-19-975878-4 (alk. paper)
1.Animal rights. 2.Cognition in animals. 3.Ethics. 4.Utilitarianism. 5.Hare, R. M. (Richard Mervyn)I. Title.
HV4708.V37 2012
179’.3—dc23 2011036088
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before
Shammai and said to him, “Make me a proselyte, on condition that you
teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Th ereupon he
[Shammai] repulsed him with the builder’s square which was in his
hand. When he went before Hillel, he [Hillel] said to him, “What is
hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah,
while the rest is commentary thereon; go and learn it.”
—talmud, shabbat 31a (translation from wattles 1996, p. 48)
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
{ Contents }
List of Tables and Figures ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xv
Part I H are’s Two-Level Utilitarianism
1. Introduction 3
2. Hare on the Logic of Moral Discourse 2 6
3. Th e Nature of Intuitive-Level System (ILS) Rules 4 8
4. Assessing Hare’s Th eory 7 3
Part II Persons, Near-Persons, and the Merely Sentient
5. Which Animals Are Sentient? 1 05
6. Personhood and Biography 133
7. Moral Signifi cance and Autonoetic Consciousness (AC) 1 60
8. Candidates for Near-Personhood 1 82
Part III Formulating ILS Rules for Persons,
Near-Persons, and the Merely Sentient
9. Replaceability, Population, and Marginal Cases 2 25
10. A Harean Perspective on Humane Sustainable Agriculture 2 55
11. Harey Animals 284
Bibliography 293
Index 307
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
{ List of tables and figures }

Table 1.1 Four Families of Defi nitions of the Term “Person” 6
Table 2.1 Th e Bun and Slavery Cases 30
Figure 3.1 A Simple Connectionist System 65
Figure 3.2 Distinguishing “2”s and “6”s Projected in a Five by Nine
Pixel Grid 65
Figure 3.3 Distinguishing “2”s and “6”s Projected in a Five by Nine
Pixel Grid 66
Table 5.1 Comparisons Relevant to Consciousness of Pain in the
Animal Kingdom, circa 1995 111
Table 5.2 Th e “Standard” Argument by Analogy, Initial Update (see
also table 5.3) 113
Table 5.3 Th e “Standard” Argument by Analogy, Further Updated 123
Table 8.1 Experimental Conditions in Test of “Episodic-like” Memory 187
Figure 8.1 Performance Curves for Humans Relying on a Combination
of Familiarity and Recollection (A), Familiarity Alone (B),
and Recollection Alone (C) 1 90
Table 9.1 Singer on “Life’s Uncertain Voyage” 238
Table 9.2 Total versus Average Utilitarianism 242
Table 10.1 Estimates of the Total Number of Animals Killed Annually
(Both During Field Operations and Slaughtered for Food)
in U.S. Agriculture 281