CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY 325
See also: Jeremy Bentham 174 ■ John Stuart Mill 190–93T
he Australian philosopher
Peter Singer became known
as one of the most active
advocates of animal rights following
the publication of his book Animal
Liberation in 1975. Singer takes
a utilitarian approach to ethics,
following the tradition developed
by Englishman Jeremy Bentham in
the late 18th century.
Utilitarianism asks us to judge
the moral value of an act by the
consequences of that act. For
Bentham, the way to do this is by
calculating the sum of pleasure or
pain that results from our actions,
like a mathematical equation.Animals are sentient beings
Singer’s utilitarianism is based
on what he refers to as an “equal
consideration of interests.” Pain, he
says, is pain, whether it is yours or
mine or anybody else’s. The extent
to which non-human animals can
feel pain is the extent to which we
should take their interests into
account when making decisions
that affect their lives, and we
should refrain from activities thatcause such pain. However, like
all utilitarians, Singer applies the
“greatest happiness principle”,
which says that we should make
decisions in such a way that they
result in the greatest happiness
for the greatest number. Singer
points out that he has never said
that no experiment on an animal
could ever be justified; rather that
we should judge all actions by their
consequences, and “the interests
of animals count among those
consequences”; they form part
of the equation. ■IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
EthicsAPPROACH
UtilitarianismBEFORE
c.560 BCE Indian sage and
Jainist leader Mahavira calls
for strict vegetarianism.1789 Jeremy Bentham sets
out the theory of utilitarianism
in his book, Introduction to
the Principles of Morals and
Legislation, arguing: “each to
count for one, and none for
more than one.”1863 In his book Utilitarianism,
John Stuart Mill develops
Bentham’s utilitarianism from
an approach that considers
individual acts to one that
considers moral rules.
AFTER
1983 American philosopher
Tom Regan publishes The
Case for Animal Rights.
IN SUFFERING,
THE ANIMALS
ARE OUR EQUALS
PETER SINGER (1946– )
The value of life is a
notoriously difficult
ethical question.
Peter Singer