The Study On Western Animal Ethics From The Perspective Of Ecology

The relationship between human and animal is one of the most important aspects for the relationship between human and nature.In order to promote the construction of ecological civilization and to achieve the harmony between man and nature,we must handle the relationship between man and animals with great care.Animal ethics is a research on the relation between human and animals as well as the human moral obligations to animals.The western animal ethics has made great progress since modern time and has strongly promoted animal protection in the west as well as human civilization.However,the existing western animal ethical theory pays most of its attention on the welfare and rights of animals from the perspective of individuals while ignore the research of animal species and their living environment.Meanwhile,western animal ethics whether human-centered or non-human centered,separate and oppose human beings from animals without regarding the ecosystem as a whole entity.All these mentioned above have led to many theoretical and practical difficulties to adjust the relationship between man and animals by drawing on western animal ethics under the ecological civilization construction background today.Ecology provides a scientific basis for the expansion of animal ethics research from individual animal perspective to animal species and further to ecological system;from the opposition between man and animals to the unity of them;from being divorced from ecological environment to concerning it;this is a new holistic world view and a valuable methodological way to solve the present theoretical and practical problems of western animal ethics.This essay analyzes the history of Western animal ethics and its representative thoughts from the perspective of ecology.It focuses on analyzing the current theoretical and practical difficulties faced by western animal ethics from the perspective of species and ecosystem.The future development trend of the animal protection is foretasted.It puts forward the tentative plan of the construction of animal ethics theory and eco-friendly animal protection mode from the perspective of ecology.On the basis of comparison and reference,the measures to improve the current animal protection in China are put forward.This article is divided into two parts: The first is the theory and practice of Western animal ethics from the perspective of ecology.The second is the construction of animal ethics based on ecological thinking.The contents of each section are summarized as follows:This article summarizes the status and value of animals in ecosystem and analyzes what aspects of ecology have expanded the ecological perspective of animal ethics research.It also elaborates on the essential characteristics of animal ethics from the perspective of ecology;Secondly,this paper investigates the evolution course of western animal ethics from gestation to enlightenment and finally to establishment.It demonstrates the ideologies in different stages with the focus on the analysis of theoretical and ecological backgrounds of the development of western animal ethics.The theoretical background includes the evolution of the view of nature,the development of Ecology and the rise of Environmental Ethics.The practical background includes the evolution of the ecological relationship between man and animal as well as the changes of human and animal living environment.Then the general points and ethical bases of the anthropocentrism and the non-anthropocentrism are demonstrated in detail,with the two major animal ethical thoughts analyzed from the ecological point of view.From the anthropocentric perspective,the representative theory of western animal ethics contains the animal instrumentalism,sympathy theory and animal welfare theory.Animal tools theory / machine theory encourages people to treat animals as a tool.Human beings do not have any moral obligation to the animal s.Its ethical foundations are based on animals show a lack of intelligence and consciousness(soul).This thought has a long history in the West,and is widely accepted today.Animal sympathy theory encourages people to treat animals with sympathy,kindness.It is strongly against abusing and killing animals.Its ethical foundations are based on the similarity between animal life and human life which leads to human transference psychology.Animal sympathy,although it is the minimum moral requirement of human beings to treat animals,still has its progressive significance,and gradually get people recognized and accepted;Animal welfare requires human to use and treat animals in reason able,charitable and humane ways to ensure the interests of human being,in the meantime,to satisfy the necessities of animals,so they could live in accordance to their nature with less suffering.Its ethical foundation is that animal s are valuable(including extrinsic values and intrinsic value).Compared with the first two schools of thought s,animal welfare theory concern the animal as the object of human morality,but still inherited the anthropocentrism ethical ideas.While being a transition of animal ethics theory from anthropocentrism to non-anthropocentrism,it is the best theory of animal ethics to be applied in practice.From the perspective of ecology,the common feature of human-centered animal ethics is that people are the main body of the earth's ecosystem,and the animal is the resource that human beings can use.Its emergence and development both have rational and obvious defects.The impact on the ecological environment is most concentrated on the killing wild animals and the destruction of their habitats,resulting in a substantial reduction or even extinction of wild animals,thereby reducing the biodiversity,threatening the balance and stability of the ecosystem.From the non-anthropocentric perspective,the representative theory of western animal ethics contains Singer's animal liberation theory,Regan's strong animal rights theory and Warren's weak animal rights theory.The ethical foundation of animal liberation theory is that animals can feel pain and pleasure.It advocates that animals should receive moral concern and both animals and human are morally equal as well as animal liberation and elimination of species discrimination.It also advocates to oppose cruel animal experiments,abolish of factory farms,and adherent to vegetarianism.Animal liberation has had profound impacts on theory and practice and set off a new chapter in the modern animal protection movement.However,it is also being questioned and criticized.Radical people think Singh's ideas still conservative,while conservative people think his thought is too radical;Strong animal rights theory is based on that animals are subject-of-life with inherent value.It advocates that animals(but not all animals)have equal moral rights to human.In practice,it believes human have responsibilities to be vegetarian,hunting and catching animals are wrong and human should concern about the endangered animal species and oppose the use of animals in scientific experiments.The contribution of the theory of strong animal rights li es in the fact that introducing the concept of “living subject” connected animals with humans and the subject scope of inherent values is extended from the human to the animal,which is promoted to an unprecedented level.The practical contribution is to c hange the ambiguous attitude towards animals and push the development of animal protection campaigns to a new height.Weak animal rights theory is based on animals have sentience and from their own interests.It claimed that the animals have moral rights,but different from human(the latter has broader and more intense rights).It proposed to reduce the consumption of meat and provide economic animals with better environment according to animal welfare while allow hunting for sport.Weak animal rights theory can be regarded as a kind of “gentle” and “practical” animal right theory.Although the theory and practice are not as complete as the theory of animal liberation,the strong animal right is so thoroughly,but its view is more in line with people's common sense and the proposed practice is also more feasible.From the perspective of ecology,the common feature of non-anthropocentrism animal ethics is that nature,including animals,is the main body of the earth's ecosystem,and that human beings should look at animals equally and establish mutual respect and partnership with animals.The emphasis on the individual interests or rights of animals is not consistent with the view of modern ecology,however,it still help improve the ecological environment,especially the living environment of wild animals.In the field of practice,the article expounds the practice and enlightenment of the western developed countries in animal protection legislation,animal ethics and cultural transmission,animal ethics education,animal protection organization development and so on.In animal protection legislation,anti-abuse to animal and animal welfare are the main subject in animal protection legislation in the developed world in the 19 th and 20 th centuries,and the scope of protected animals is expanding and the purpose of protection is constantly changing.To a certain extent,it reflects the progress of human civilization,improving the relationship between human and animal,the living environment of animals and the bio sphere of the ecological environment.In the development of animal literature,the wilderness and ecological environment are considered more and more important by animal literature writers.Animal ethical thoughts of rich and respectful life,equal treatme nt and harmony between human and nature(including animals)for animals are present in their animal literature.In the development of animal theme film,the theme of the film ranges from the simple expression of animal loyalty to human to the deep reflection on life and nature,which urge human beings to think about their own situations and review the relationship between human and animals from the perspective of ecological ethics.This article also expounds the interrelationships of the different representative schools of western animal ethical thoughts,and analyzes the theoretical and practical dilemma of animal liberation and animal rights theory from the perspective of species and ecosystem.Western animal ethics would show a tendency of integration and diversified coexistence from previous separation.Then,from the general requirements of the construction of ecological civilization,regarding the Marxist view of ecological nature as a guide,taping the traditional culture of animal ethics and wisdom,learning from the development of Western animal ethics theory,initially building the respective,harmonious,inseparable new relationship between human and animals is seen as the core of the ecological perspective of animal ethics theory.At last,based on the analysis of the pros and cons of the animal protection models on the Western animal ethics,it puts forward the idea of establishing the ecological preference type animal protection model,emphasizes the protection of animal species especially on wild animals and protects the ecological system balance;For domestic animals,the focus is on the basis of anti-abuse which is to protect the basic welfare of individual animals.On the basis of the above,this article analyzes the causes of the lack of animal protection in China from the aspects of animal protection legislation,animal nature reserve construction,animal ethics education and cultural transmission,development of animal protection organizations at present,and puts forward some suggestions for improvement.