One of the major theories in philosophy is utilitarianism, which strives for producing the most amount of happiness. The utilitarian approach is based on the simple doctrine that if an action is ethical and it brings happiness to an individual or a group of people without causing pain, then it is acceptable. One of the main emphasis of utilitarianism is animal rights. It primarily focuses on the treatment of animals and how they should be treated more humanely. The paper will discuss utilitarian’s beliefs and whether they require people to stop eating animals and experimenting on them. The classical utilitarian, Jeremy Bentham, argued that the main principle of utility is that we must generate the most happiness and the least unhappiness
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Suffering the animal only causes unhappiness. They believe that animals should be treated just like humans. If they are able to feel pain or pleasure like humans, than they should receive similar treatment. In sum, they highly encourage that we ought to care for any creature that feels pain or pleasure (Rachels, 2015). Furthermore, utilitarian’s say humans should either become vegetarian or treat the animals as humans before killing them (Rachels, 2015). If this were to be practiced then it would be acceptable and justified to eat animal meat. But, as long as humans continue to mistreat animals before killing or experimenting on them, utilitarian’s will not condone this. Utilitarian’s require humans to treat the animals like human’s and if they fail to do this then we should not use them to experiment on or to kill and eat. This is a positive aspect to the theory because we take animals for granted. Some animals are our companions, or they simply bring us happiness in different ways. They are able to feel pain just as us humans do, thus, making it immoral to treat them critically. This theory positively promotes the awareness of animal rights and welfare. We ought to consider the animals needs before concluding our own happiness as they are the ones that
Suffering the animal only causes unhappiness. They believe that animals should be treated just like humans. If they are able to feel pain or pleasure like humans, than they should receive similar treatment. In sum, they highly encourage that we ought to care for any creature that feels pain or pleasure (Rachels, 2015). Furthermore, utilitarian’s say humans should either become vegetarian or treat the animals as humans before killing them (Rachels, 2015). If this were to be practiced then it would be acceptable and justified to eat animal meat. But, as long as humans continue to mistreat animals before killing or experimenting on them, utilitarian’s will not condone this. Utilitarian’s require humans to treat the animals like human’s and if they fail to do this then we should not use them to experiment on or to kill and eat. This is a positive aspect to the theory because we take animals for granted. Some animals are our companions, or they simply bring us happiness in different ways. They are able to feel pain just as us humans do, thus, making it immoral to treat them critically. This theory positively promotes the awareness of animal rights and welfare. We ought to consider the animals needs before concluding our own happiness as they are the ones that