Erst das Fressen, dann die Moral?

Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2012 im Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften - Allgemeines und Begriffe, Note: 1,0, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This BA thesis is discussing the arguments of the philosophers Prof. Dr. Peter Singer and Dr. Helmut F. Kaplan concerning animal ethics, based on their main works - both being advocates of the animal rights movement and vegetarians themselves. Singer and Kaplan have been cho-sen not only for their representative status within the anglophone and german-speaking area respectively, but also since Kaplan has based his theory on one major aspect of Singer's argu-ments while strongly opposing another. On one hand Singer bases his vegetarianism on the grounds of equal consideration of interests which includes the extension of the moral circle to-wards all sentient beings that can feel pain - the one and only feature having moral relevance - thereby using the analogy of racism and sexism to give focus to speciesism, a discrimination or prejudice against non-humans based on physical differences that are given moral value. On the other hand Singer is a preference utilitarian and therefore promoting actions that fulfill the pref-erences (or interests) of beings involved which explicitely involves non-human animals. Whereas Kaplan agrees with Singer's stance on the equal consideration of interests, he rejects all utilitarian ideas since these might not necessarily lead to vegetarianism. This thesis further-more gives a short review on the history of factory farming, its consequences and likewise the idea and history of vegetarianism, eventually concluding 1) that living a vegetarian lifestyle might likely proving to be the only ethical alternative in the future and 2) that there is a need for the formation of a steady and rational ethical theory which should be based both on Singer's and Kaplan's arguments and might already be existing in the shape of Richard D. Ryder's the-ory of painism.

Autorentext
Gordon Wagner, B.A., wurde 1986 in Berlin geboren. Sein Studium der Kulturwissenschaften an der Europa-Universität Viadrina schloss er im Jahr 2012 mit der vorliegenden Studie zu Vegetarismus und Tierethik erfolgreich ab. Während des Studiums beschäftigte er sich intensiv mit der Problematik und wurde nach Lektüre der Werke Peter Singers 2009 selbst zum Vegetarier. Seither interessiert ihn insbesondere die Einordnung der Tierethik in einen größeren Kontext, eine globale Ethik. Zu seinen Studienschwerpunkten im Master-of-Arts-Studium gehören Europa-Politik sowie Religionskritik.