#1. Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?
I think it is more important for a person to perform good acts compared to being a good person. I feel that this is more important because people should take action for things they care about or are passionate about. For example, if someone cares about keeping the environment clean, they will do things about it rather than saying they care about it and then do nothing. If someone cares about the pollution in areas, they will organize a clean up committee. They can clean up beaches, parks, streets, and the side of highways. We see trash in these places way too often and if people were to perform a good act and clean the environment around them the world would be a cleaner, better place. I know for me it makes me angry when people just throw their trash all around. Why would you want to harm the planet we live on? If I am out walking my dog or hiking in the woods andI see garbage, I will pick it up and properly throw it away.
#5. Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans (speciesism)?
I agree with this question because in some circumstances the pleasure and pain of non-human animals’ matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans. I think they matter in the setting of animal testing. Animals should not put through that torture and pain just for our enjoyment of certain products and clothing. I also think animals pleasure and pain matter when animals aren’t being taken care of properly. For example, the over crowdedness of some farms and animal shelters is an issue. In this situation, animals do not get the proper care. As people, we do not want to be tortured or kept in overcrowded places so I think the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans.
On the flip side, I could give examples on how I do not think that matters. I grew up in a family of hunters and now I am a hunter myself. When the module asked “Would we be able to completely be okay with it of we gave a human death sentence for hunting a deer?”, I would say I was not okay with it. When killing certain animals, we are feeding people and helping over population with some animals. Where I am from, there are always deer getting hit my cars and causing trouble. This is because for awhile they were very over populated. Hunting is one way to control this. Also, I know in my family, we do not hunt animals we cannot bring home and eat.
#6. Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?
I believe people can be both selfish and altruism. I am one of those people. There are some ways my life is worth more than others. I think my life is worth more than people who are sitting in jail for life for committing a crime (ex: murderer or rapist). That is the only time I believe my life is worth more than others. As the module says, being selfish means you are less likely to help someone. So no, I would not help those type of people in any way. I feel that way because I am doing things with my life. I am going to college, getting a degree in something I love, and will work and make my own life compared to those people who will sit in jail for the rest of their lives. Contrast to being selfish, I believe I am an altruism too. I think my life is worth the same as other people. My family’s lives are very important to me. I would never want anything to happen to them and I would do anything to make sure that they stay safe. I am willing to always help them with whatever they need help in and I will be there for them.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your perspective. In your views on speciesism it appears that you would draw a line of when it is ok and when it isn’t, which if we compare to virtue ethics, you don’t hold speciesism as a virtue. If we cross examine ethical issues, holding a virtue means that you possess the trait in its entirety. In your approach to speciesism, you claim that you hold animal suffering as important sometimes, but not all the time. Which, I think is how most people feel, but I just want to challenge the statement academically. If you believe that it is ethically OK sometimes, than you hold other species as being sub-human, because I am guessing you wouldn’t say it is sometimes okay to hunt and kill other humans as food. If we approach other species as sentient beings, like, for example in some Eastern religions, than we would not kill other sentient beings for any reason. Maybe the human population is indeed the overpopulated one and if humans were not driving cars in the area then there wouldn’t be any accidents. The deer still ends up dead and undervalued in that situation anyways. I found the lesson material on speciesism to be enlightening and hope to curb my own ethics on treatment of other species, as I too grew up in a hunting/farming community. Thanks for sharing!
You can read my post at: http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/02/02/a-conversation-on-ethics/
I hold very similar ethical views as you do, which is why your post intrigued me. I think that your example of animal testing was a great way to demonstrate speciesism. Your argument about how humans would not want to be in the place of animals, being tortured and in overcrowded settings, was very strong and created a new perspective on the issue of animal testing. I also think that your counter-argument about hunting was a very good example of how humans do need to take control of overpopulation with non-human species.
http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/02/03/katie-greiner-module-3-ethics/