Hsiao on the Moral Status of Animals: Two Simple Responses

AbstractAccording to a common view, animals have moral status. Further, a standard defense of this view is the Argument from Consciousness: animals have moral status because they are conscious and can experience pain and it would be bad were they to experience pain. In a series of papers (J Agric Environ Ethics 28(2):277 –291, 2015a, J Agric Environ Ethics 28(11):11270–1138, 2015b, J Agric Environ Ethics 30(1):37–54, 2017), Timothy Hsiao claims that animals do not have moral status and criticizes the Argument from Consciousness. This short paper defends the Argument from Consciousness by providing two simple r esponses to Hsiao’s criticism.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics - October 17, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research