Unitarianism

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Shelly Kagan

Published:

2019

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

This chapter identifies a common view in contemporary discussions of animal ethics, which the author calls <italic>unitarianism</italic>. According to the unitarian, animals have the very same moral status as people have, so that otherwise similar interests of animals and people should be given the very same consideration in moral deliberation. At first glance this seems to have the implausible implication that forced to choose between saving a mouse, say, and a person, one should flip a coin. But the objection can be avoided by noting the fact that people generally have much more well-being at stake than animals do (so that more harm befalls a person if she dies, than would befall a mouse if it died). The chapter closes by clarifying the sense in which unitarians deny the existence of a moral hierarchy.

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