Kantian Moral Patients Without Practical Reason?

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter discusses the extent to which Kant’s views on interpersonal ethics can be applied to animals, provided we recognise the existence of duties to animals. The first difficulty is that we cannot have any ‘duties of respect’ towards animals, since these duties rest on the idea of recognising the equality of moral agents. The second difficulty is that Kant’s central demand that we adopt the ends of others rests on the idea that others are instrumentally rational pursuers of their own happiness. Animals are neither, according to Kant. The chapter proposes amendments to the Kantian ethical framework to resolve these difficulties. It also details Kant’s views on instinct as a driver of animal behaviour, which puts them in contrast with rational agents.