Environmental Ethics and Productivity of Animals

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Ph.D Student in Islamic Ethics, Baqer al-Ulum University, Qom, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Today, attention to animal rights has a special place, and one of the famous moral philosophers who pay special attention to animal rights is Peter Singer. He has raised several reasons for the wrongness of human use of animals, including the argument of speciesism and the wrongness of inflicting pain and suffering on animals. In addition to these two arguments, he has paid close attention to the relationship between excessive use of animals and environmental destruction. Today, a significant share of environmental destruction is caused by industrial livestock farms, which, by producing meat, destroy plant resources, emit greenhouse gases, and damage nature. Singer considers the situation caused by the way humans treat animals and considers it related to religious teachings about humans and animals. Considering meat-eating as immoral and rejecting religion's opinion on this, he suggests vegetarianism to preserve the environment. In this article, while examining and criticizing this argument, it is clear that the most important factor of environmental destruction is excessive and undesirable use of animals by humans. The problem of the environment can be solved by modifying the attitude of man towards the environment and how to organize his use of nature, which is also emphasized by religion. If the human use of the environment, of which the animal is a part, is done in a purposeful and responsible manner, it will not only cause the destruction of the environment, but it will also lead to its better preservation and, as a result, respect for the animal's rights. The need to emphasize the reform of the structure instead of banning consumption, paying attention to the harms of vegetarianism, and the need to properly understand the opinion of religion, especially Islam, are among the criticisms that can be made to Singer.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Article Title [Persian]

اخلاق محیط زیست و بهره‌وری از حیوانات

Authors [Persian]

  • ناصر جعفری پور 1
  • علی رضا آل بویه 2
1 دانشجوی دکتری اخلاق اسلامی/ دانشگاه باقرالعلوم، قم، ایران
2 استادیار پژوهشگاه علوم و فرهنگ اسلامی، قم، ایران
Abstract [Persian]

 امروزه توجه به حقوق حیوانات از جایگاه ویژه ­ای برخوردار است. یکی از فیلسوفان اخلاق معروفی که توجه وافری به حقوق حیوانات دارد، پیتر سینگر است. او دلایل متعددی بر نادرستی استفادة انسان از حیوان اقامه کرده است؛ از جمله استدلال­های «گونه­ پرستی» و «نادرستی وارد کردن درد و رنج بر حیوانات». او علاوه بر این دو استدلال، توجه خود را به رابطة استفادة بیش از حد از حیوانات و تخریب محیط زیست نیز معطوف داشته است. امروزه سهم قابل توجهی از تخریب محیط زیست متوجه دامداری‌های صنعتی است که با تولید گوشت موجب از بین رفتن منابع گیاهی، انتشار گازهای گلخانه‌ای و آسیب­زدن به طبیعت می‌­شوند. سینگر وضعیت پیش ­آمده را ناشی از نحوة رفتار انسان­ها با حیوانات دانسته و آن را مرتبط با آموزه‌های دینی دربارة انسان و حیوان می‌داند. او با غیراخلاقی دانستن گوشت­خواری و رد نظر دین در این باره برای حفظ محیط زیست گیاه­ خواری را پیشنهاد می‌کند. در این مقاله ضمن بررسی و نقد این استدلال، مشخص می­شود که مهمترین عامل تخریب محیط زیست افراط و استفادة نامطلوب انسان از حیوان است. مشکل محیط زیست با اصلاح نوع نگرش انسان به محیط زیست و نحوة ساماندهی استفادة او از طبیعت قابل حل است که دین نیز آن را مورد تأکید قرار داده است. اگر استفادة انسان از مجموعة محیط زیست که حیوان نیز جزئی از آن است، به­صورت هدفمند و مسئولانه انجام بگیرد، نه تنها موجب تخریب محیط زیست نخواهد شد، بلکه مایة حفظ بهتر آن و در نتیجه مراعات حقوق حیوان نیز خواهد شد. لزوم تأکید بر اصلاح ساختار به جای منع مصرف، توجه به آسیب‌های گیاه­خواری و لزوم فهم درست از نظر دین به­خصوص اسلام از جمله نقدهایی است که می‌توان به سینگر وارد کرد.

Keywords [Persian]

  • اخلاق حیوانات"
  • محیط زیست"
  • منافع حیوان"
  • پیتر سینگر"
  • "
  • حقوق حیوانات در ادیان

References

The Holy Quran 
Atrak, Hossein. (1384). Ethical Utilitarianism, Naqd va Nazar, 10 (1&2): 264-300.
Derbyshire, Emma Rima Obeid and Christiane Schön. (2021). Habitual Choline Intakes across the Childbearing Years, A Review. Nutrients, Dec 8;13(12):4390.
De fontenay, É. (2000). Pourquoi les animaux n’auraient-ils pas droit à un droit des animaux. Le Débat .2 (n° 109), pp 138 – 155.
Eslami, Seyyed Hasan. (2011). Two moral arguments against industrial meat consumption. Ethical Research, 2 (4): 267-290.
Fath Ali, Mahmoud and Ali Reza Al Boyeh. (2016). Elements of James Richler's Moral Philosophy, Qom: Research Institute of Islamic Sciences and Culture, first edition.
Gruen, Lori. (2011). Ethics and Animals: an Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, John. (1985). The Value of life, An Introduction to Medical Ethics. First edition, Rutledge & kegan Paul.
Har Aamili, Muhammad bin Hasan. (1409 AH). Detailing the means of Shi'a to the study of Islamic matters, Qom: Al-Al-Bayt Foundation, first edition
Hursthouse, Rosalind. (2006)."Applying Virtue Ethics to our Treatment of the Other Animals", in: The Practice of Virtue: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Virtue Ethics, ed. by Jennifer Welchman, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Jahid, Mohsen. (2012). Ethics and Animals: Approaches and Theories, Bioethics, 3 (10): 163-190
Jafaripour, Naser. (2016). The truth of religiosity from the perspective of Martyr Motahari, Qom: Al-Fazel Publishing House, first edition
Kagan, Shelly. (2015). What’s wrong with speciesism? Society of applied philosophy annual lecture, journal of applied philosophy, pp. 1-21.
Krantz, Susan F. (1946). Refuting Peter Singer's Ethical Theory: The Importance of Human Dignity, Greenwood Publishing Group.
L A, Kemmerer. (2007).Between the species. Peter Singer on expendability. Issue. VII, August. www.cla.calpoly.edu/bts/
Mark, Rowlands. (2009). Animal Rights Moral Theory and Practice. University of Miami, Florida, USA.
McWilliams James. (2017). Can Eating Meat Be Ethica? Pacific Standard Jun14.
Milligan, Tony. (2010). Beyond Animal Rights: Food, Pets and Ethics, London: Continuum, 7 Oct.
Modi, Maryam and Mehbobeh Sadat Hosseinzadeh. (2017). "Investigation of the vegetarian diet and its positive and negative approaches on the human body, human societies and the environment", the Second International Conference on Medicinal Plants, organic agriculture, natural and medicinal substances. https://civilica.com/doc/879178
Narveson, Jan. (1977). "Animal Rights" in: Canadian Journal of Philosophy .Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 161-178.
Regan, Tom. (2017). Animal Rights and Wrongs. Translated by Behnam Khodapanah. Tehran: Kargdan Publications, first edition.
Safavi, Seyyed Morteza, Masoudpour Moghadis, Ali Akbar Tausli. (2013). Investigating the Effect of Vegetarian Diet on the Course of Coronary Atherosclerosis, Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 63: 49-53.
Singer, Peter. (2016). Animal Liberation .Translated by Behnam Khodapanah. Tehran: Phoenix Publications, first edition
Singer, Peter. (1388). One World: The Ethics of Globalization, translated by Mohammad Azadeh, Tehran: Nei Publishing House, first edition
Singer, Peter. (2011). Practical Ethics (2nd ed.), Cambridge Universey Prees.
Singer, Peter. (2004). Taking Humanism Beyond Speciesism, Free Inquiry, 6. Available at: http://www.secularhumanism.org.
Ethical Reflections
Volume 4, Issue 4 - Serial Number 16
December 2023
Pages 31-49

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 07 February 2023
  • Revise Date: 30 July 2023
  • Accept Date: 28 October 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics