Honors
HNRS 176-01: Humans And Other Animals: A Philosophical Investigation
This class will investigate the ways in which humans are considered to be like and unlike (other) animals both for purposes of saying what it is to be human and for figuring out the class of entities to which we have moral responsibilities.
Since ancient times, philosophers have tried to figure out what is distinctive about being human.They’ve done so, not merely because it is an interesting question in its own right (although that is certainly true), but also because we have historically believed ourselves to have ethical responsibilities towards only our fellow human beings or some subset thereof (my family, tribe, city, ethnic group, etc.).While we might take both of these projects as being fully positive, they have usually also included a certain element of negation as well.That is, the project of saying what we are has almost always entailed saying what we are not while the project of saying to whom we are ethically responsible is also to say to whom we have no (or fewer or different) responsibilities.
For the ancient Greeks, there were two clear contrast classes
to being human: gods and animals.For
many medieval thinkers, who subscribed to various forms of monotheism, the
contrast became with God (and perhaps angels) but still with animals.With the dawn of modernity in the seventeenth
century, as marked by the development of mechanistic science, a new term enters
the mix: the machine.Humans, for
example in the work of Descartes, are contrasted not only with animals, but
with animals understood as divinely-designed mechanisms.Recent developments in evolutionary biology,
psychology, cognitive science and other disciplines have made our relationship
to other animals more rather than less complex.
The ethical waters too have become muddied of late.Recent arguments coming both from animal rights theory and environmental philosophy have pushed hard on the idea that it is only to other humans that we have ethical responsibilities.One of the reasons we have historically cared about other humans is because we have considered ourselves to have ethical responsibilities towards them, responsibilities that we have not historically believed ourselves to have had towards other, non-human beings.Some theorists have argued that our inability fully to differentiate ourselves from other animals means that they too must be brought within the sphere of moral considerability.Others have argued that even though we can successfully differentiate ourselves there is either something about us or something about (some of) them that requires us to consider them ethically as well.
We will read both historical and contemporary texts relevant to both of these issues.
Spring Term: 2008
Credits: 4
Fulfills: GE Requirement in Humanities (U)
Cross-listed: PHIL-101-04
Meeting times: 2:30-3:50 MW
Instructor: Jonathan Maskit
Open to: First-years/Sophomores Only, limited by quota of 8 First-years/8 Sophomores.