2022年1月29日
Brian Wong
EJ Insight
Why do animals have rights?
You read this right. This is a philosophical exposition of the not-particularly-philosophical question of animal rights – more precisely, why do animals have rights. If you're a fan of formal philosophy, congratulations, you're in for a treat! If you're not a fan of formal philosophy, that's entirely fine, too. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Let's start with a basic observation concerning rights. What are rights? Some suggest that rights are a kind of interest – so, for instance, if I have an interest in consuming food at regular intervals, I may posit that I have a right to food at regular intervals; alternatively, if I have a burning desire to travel to space and land on Mars, one could attribute to me a right to travel to Mars… Whilst the former example seems intuitive enough, the latter seems a tad implausible – surely, we have the right to live, to food and shelter, but we do not have a right to travel to and land on Mars? ...
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