Disentangling Obligations of Assistance. A Reply to Clare Palmer’s “Against the View That We Are Usually Required to Assist Wild Animals”
نویسنده
چکیده
Animals are sentient individuals. They can be harmed and benefited by what happens to them. A significant number of nonhuman animals live under human control, yet the overwhelming majority of them live in the wild (Tomasik 2014). Many of the harms wild animals endure are due to natural events, rather than to human agency. Given the means at our disposal, wild animal suffering could be, to some extent, prevented or, at least, alleviated. This raises the question of whether we are morally required to intervene in nature to assist them or, alternatively, whether we may permissibly choose not to. Clare Palmer is one of the few philosophers who directly tackles this problem 1, answering it from the relational account of the moral consideration of nonhuman animals which she has developed (2010, 2013, 2015). As it can be surmised from her contribution to this issue, her claim is that we are not usually required to assist wild animals. However, we may be permitted to do so. This thesis relies on two premises: (i) we are morally required to assist others in need if, and only if, we have a prior morally-relevant entanglement with them; (ii) usually, there are no such morally-relevant entanglements between human beings and wild animals. Palmer’s default position is, thus, that we lack general obligations to help others. Instead, we merely have special obligations of assistance towards those individuals with whom we have morally-relevant entanglements. It is the existence of such entanglements what generates obligations
منابع مشابه
Economic analysis of contractual breach sanctions
The conclusion of any contract aims at implementation of the obligations arising from it. Morality dictates that people adhere to what they assumed regarding others. The law also supported the moral judgment and in case of breach of obligations to oblige, compensation as a sanction is imposed on obligor. In view of the economic analysis, he also committed to respect his contract and the Contrac...
متن کاملDocumentation of indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants of Pakistan
Indigenous knowledge of wild and cultivated plant use is linked to local culture and history. It should be regarded as a body of knowledge that has continually developed over time without the outside assistance of formal science. Pakistan has 18 different types of ecological zones with a variety of habitat types like the coastal Mangrove forests, the desert subtropical foothills dry and moist a...
متن کاملDocumentation of indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants of Pakistan
Indigenous knowledge of wild and cultivated plant use is linked to local culture and history. It should be regarded as a body of knowledge that has continually developed over time without the outside assistance of formal science. Pakistan has 18 different types of ecological zones with a variety of habitat types like the coastal Mangrove forests, the desert subtropical foothills dry and moist a...
متن کاملPrevalence of Cryptosporidium in Wild Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) Population at Shoushtar, Iran
Background: Cryptosporidiosis is a zoonotic disease with public health importance, especially for individuals with weak immune system, such as children, elderly people and immune suppressed ones. Evaluation of the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in wild rodents such as wild brown rats could help to establish an epidemiological map of Cryptosporidiosis. The aim of the current study was to assess t...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2015