The Theories of Morality and Their Rejection of Human Exceptionalism

This scholarly essay aimed to discover and explore evidence of moral capabilities of animals, as well as use the theories of morality to reject human exceptionalism as moral. This research also focuses on the differences among three known moral theories, Carruther’s contractionalism, Mill’s utilitarianism, and Kant’s Kantism, and their application to nonhuman animals. The topic of morality remains subjective and the discussed theories offer differing views of how to define right and wrong. These moral theories are explained and then applied to nonhuman animals, as well as the literature that supports moral status in animals. This research discovered that although very different in their approaches to defining morality, the theories of morality take a similar approach to human exceptionalism, implying that humans have moral obligations to uphold to nonhuman animals and humans alike