Universität Wien
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180194 VO-L Introduction to Animal Ethics (2022W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
ON-SITE
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 11.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 18.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Monday 24.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 6 Franz König Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
  • Tuesday 15.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 22.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 29.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 06.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 13.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 10.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 17.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien
  • Tuesday 24.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 3D, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. III/3. Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

There has always been a close and complex relationship between humans and animals. The moral dimensions of this complex relationship have been discussed for about fifty years under the label of animal ethics. The basic question of animal ethics as an area of applied ethics is: What are we allowed to do with animals and what are we not allowed to do? The answers to this question have varied. Basically, however, the approaches can be assigned to basic theories and applied discourses of animal ethics. While the basic theories are predominantly concerned with the question of the moral status of animals and its justification, the applications focus on the practical consequences and the justification of concrete moral claims. In the lecture, both the basic theories and the applications of animal ethics are presented.
The first part of the lecture is dedicated to the influential theories, their criticism and adaptation: The arguments of Peter Singer and Tom Regan will serve as an introduction to the topic. As consequentialist and deontological theories, correspondingly, their works on animal ethics have become classic cornerstones of further discussions. Although these approaches describe the central course of animal ethics research, a large number of more recent or alternative approaches have been developed in the meantime. A selection of these approaches (Cora Diamond, Clare Palmer, virtue ethics etc.) will be discussed in the lecture. The second part of the lecture applies these theoretical foundations to concrete contexts: Farm animal husbandry, animal experimentation and pet keeping.
At the end of the lecture, students should have an overview of the field of animal ethics, its basic theories and their classification. Furthermore, an understanding of the application of the theories in practical contexts and the resulting challenges will be developed.
The basic content is conveyed via individual reading with the help of given literature guiding questions. Answers to the literature guiding questions can be uploaded anonymously to Moodle each week for the online discussions. In this way, the weekly online discussions can be actively shaped by the students. Important: The weekly units thus serve to deepen the content, application and further reflection and should provide sufficient opportunity for prepared exchange.

Assessment and permitted materials

The performance assessment is conducted online and is designed as an open-book format. It consists of two parts: The guiding literature questions constitute a literature questionnaire that is to be completed individually and submitted for the online examination, which is a prerequisite for successful participation in the examination. The second part of the performance assessment is a two-hour, practice-oriented take-home exam. In it, an example relevant to animal ethics is analysed on the basis of aspects of the theories covered in three questions on the topics of the question catalogue. In both parts, material and additional sources may be used, but must be cited according to scientific standards.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The completion of the literature questionnaire serves as an independent preparation for the examination and is therefore not assessed in terms of content, but only checked to see whether it is an individually filled out (via the plagiarism check software Turnitin). The practice-oriented part of the exam checks whether an independent and confident handling of the different approaches has been acquired. In the course of the units, there will be repeated application tasks and examples to facilitate the approach to the practice-oriented examination format.

The exam will be evaluated with the following scale: 0 – 20 = 5, 21 – 24 = 4, 25 – 29 = 3, 30 – 34 = 2, 35 – 40 = 1

Examination topics

The exam comprises only the compulsory literature and individual answers to the literature guiding questions. However, it is recommended that you attend the units regularly or listen to the recordings to ensure an application-oriented understanding of the theories.

Reading list

All texts can be found on Moodle.
Singer, P. (1976). All Animals Are Equal. In Regan, T., Singer, P. (Eds.), Animal Rights and HumanObligations (pp. 148-162). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Regan, T. (1983). The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 13-26.
Palmer, C. (2011). The Moral Relevance of the Distinction Between Domesticated and Wild Animals. In Beauchamp, T.; Frey, G. (Eds) The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics. Oxford: OUP.
Abbate, C. (2014). Virtues and Animals: A Minimally Decent Ethic for Practical Living in a Non-ideal World. J Agric Environ Ethics 27, 909-929.
Diamond, C. (1978). Eating meat and eating people. Philosophy, 53(206), 465-479. doi:10.1017/S0031819100026334
May, T. (2014). Moral Individualism, Moral Relationalism, and Obligations to Non-human Animals. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 31(2), 155-168. doi:10.1111/japp.12055
Monsó, S., Grimm, H. (2019). An Alternative to the Orthodoxy in Animal Ethics? Limits and Merits of the Wittgensteinian Critique of Moral Individualism. Animals, 12(9), 1057.
Norcross, A. (2004). Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases. Philosophical Perspectives 18, 229-244.
Bruckner, D. (2015). Strict Vegetarianism is Immoral. In Bramble, B.; Fischer, B. (Eds.) The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat. Oxford: OUP.
Bovenkerk. B., Poort, L. (2020). Institutionalized ethical Assessments of Animal Experiments. In Fischer, B.(Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Grimm, H., Olsson, I.A.S., Sandøe, P. (2019). Harm-Benefit Analysis — What is the Added Value? A Review of Alternative Strategies for Weighing Harms and Benefits as Part of the Assessment of Animal. Research. Lab Anim., 53(1), 17-27.
Grier, K. (2020). Pets. In Fischer, B. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Grimm, H., Bergadano, A., Musk, G.C., Otto, K., Taylor, P.M., Duncan, J.C. (2018). Drawing the Line in Clinical Treatment of Companion Animals: Recommendations From an Ethics Working Party. Veterinary Record, 182(23), 1-7.
Grimm, H., Huth, M. (2016). The 'Significance of Killing' versus the 'Death of an Animal'. In Meijboom, F., Stassen, E. (Eds.) The End of Animal Life: A Start for Ethical Debate.

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Last modified: Mo 03.07.2023 05:47