Does Fish Welfare Matter? On the Moral Relevance of Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12495674 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Frederike Kaldewaij (Utrecht University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 63-74 |
| Publication date | 2012-02-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1187-7863 • E-ISSN: 1573-322X |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10806-011-9372-9 |
| OpenAlex | W2018126080 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
To determine whether fish welfare matters morally, we need to know what characteristics or capacities beings need to have in order to be morally considerable, and whether fish have such characteristics. In this paper I discuss a group of theories, Kantian practical reasoning theories, in which agency (or practical rationality) is traditionally thought to be a necessary condition for moral considerability. An individual must have quite sophisticated capacities to be a (moral) agent in such theories: she must be able to act on rational principles. It seems unlikely that nonhuman animals such as fish have such capacities. I argue, however, that on the basis of certain Kantian arguments, moral agents have reason to accept duties to nonrational animals if they are agents in a much less demanding sense: if they are motivated to pursue the objects of their desires. If fish have this capacity, their welfare matters morally
Agency (philosophy · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Fish · Fishery · Moral agency · Moral responsibility · Morality · Neoclassical economics · Order (exchange · Political science · Positive economics · Rational agent · Rationality · Relevance (law · Sociology · Welfare · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
The Practice of Moral Judgment
Kant's Critique of Practical Reason
Immanuel Kant Critique of Practical Reason
Groundwork of The Metaphysic of Morals
The metaphysics of morals (1797)
The Sources of Normativity
Reason and Morality
The Practice of Moral Judgment
The Possibility of Altruism
Toward Fin de siecle Ethics
Critique of Practical Reason (Hackett Classics Series)
| Highly cited | No |
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