[[alternative]]Animal Protection : Discussion on Peter Singer's Animal Liberaion Ethics

[[abstract]]The purpose of this thesis is to introduce and discuss Peter Singer’s theory about animal liberation. Peter Singer is probably the most influential theorist in animal liberation movement, which is aimed at opposing the deprivation of animals. Singer’s theory is a philosophical defense for the radical animal liberation movement. He believes that some animals, like people, can suffer, and the avoidance of sufferings is a fundamental interest for a being. He uses the “equal consideration of interests” as a basic requirement for equality and the ultimate principle of ethics. He claims that neither the exclusion nor degrading of animal’s interests can be justified. In ethical considerations, the same degree of suffering (of different species) should be taken equally. Intensive animal farming and most animal experiments cause strong pains for the animals only to fulfill minor and trivial interests for human beings. Therefore, intensive animal farming and animal experiments violate an ethical principle, which is the equal consideration of interests. Regarding the value of lives, Singer takes a preference utilitarian approach. He claims that only the self-conscious beings have preferences and only those beings’ lives should be protected by the ethical principle. Those who are not self-conscious but can feel pains can be morally killed and replaced, providing the killing process is painless. (However, such painless meat production hardly exists.) Those who cannot feel pains have no moral standings. I also discussed the criticism to Singer’s theory, which can be classified into four types: (1) questions about the moral boundary, (2) questions about the equal consideration of interests, (3) questions about utilitarianism, and (4) fundamental questions about ethics. Hopefully, my introduction and discussion of Singer’s theory would provide some clarification in Taiwan’s environmental education regarding animal right. I also propose 5 examples where Singer's ideas are used in education. Hopefully, these examples would show students the immorality of animal's current situation and teach them to respect lives.