Animal Ethics Today
EP&E S417 (CRN: 30232) | Syllabus
Instructors: Jennifer Daigle
Dates: Session A, May 26 - June 27, 2025
Course Mode: In-Person
Meeting Times: TTh 1.00-4.15
Distributional Requirements: Humanities, Writing
Eligibility: Open to pre-college and college students
In-person Course. This course is designed to encourage grappling with some of the central questions in today's animal ethics literature and several prominent approaches to them. Among these questions are more fundamental ones concerning how to even approach questions surrounding the moral status of the animals and our treatment of them, as well as more derivative questions concerning particular practices. Included among these questions are: What moral status do animals have (indeed, is this even an illuminating question to ask)? In virtue of what do they have that status (e.g. is it in virtue of their intrinsic properties, or something else entirely)? Supposing animals do count morally, do humans still count more? What role, if any, should considerations of human happiness, virtue, and relationships play in our moral theorizing about animals? So (some of) the other animals have a right to life? A right to flourish? Is it morally permissible to keep pets, or should we work toward a future without domesticated animals? And what, if anything, does addressing the situation of non-human animals have to do with addressing other social justice issues? We explore these questions through a variety of ethical frameworks, including utilitarian, deontological, virtue-ethical, and feminist ones. Enrollment limited to 20 students. 1 Credit. Session A: May 26 – June 27. Tuition: $5270.
Yale Summer Session 2025