Morality and Non-Human Suffering: Analytical Animal Ethics

Abstract

What can be said about the moral aspects of causing other animals suffering? In order to explore this question, the obvious first port of call is ‘animal ethics’. This field of philosophy, which has gained momentum since the 1970s, concerns itself with the moral status of non-human animals and, more broadly, with the normative elements of the human-animal relationship. Quite simply, it asks: what is the moral value of animals, and how ought animals to be treated?