FALL 2009 

PHIL 7800

(74932 – 5001)

6:00 - 9:30pm R

Shatzel Hall Room 317

Animal Well-Being

Professor Christian Coons

Though a great deal has been written on the moral status of non-human animals and whether we have moral duties to promote the well-being of animals, there has been much less focus on the question—“What makes a non-human animal’s life go better or worse?”  The question is pressing for at least two reasons.  First, we need such a theory to develop and interpret policies governing the humane treatment of animals.  Second, theories of personal well-being (i.e. what is good for an adult human) very rarely give us any insight into what would be good for an animal that lacks human capacities.  For example, if most non-human animals cannot exhibit propositional attitudes, then desire-satisfaction cannot be used to characterize what is good for these animals.  Furthermore, it appears that the types of views that may readily cross-apply to animals—hedonistic, perfectionist, health and need-based views—are each open to disturbing counter-examples. So our task will be to review some of the literature on well-being as well as literature on the cognitive capacities of non-human animals (especially farm animals) to try to come up with a plausible answer to our question.  We will also specifically address questions like: How is it possible for a being’s life to go better or worse, if the being cannot take up attitudes towards its life? Is death bad for non-human animals? Can future pleasure be good for being that does not recognize that it has a future? What minimal capacities are needed to possess a welfare, and why?

Department of Philosophy
305 Shatzel Hall,
Bowling Green State University,
Bowling Green, OH 43403.

Phone: 419-372-2117
Fax: 419-372-8191
Email: mdeluca@bgnet.bgsu.edu