Episode 99, Animal Rights (Part III - Mere Instruments)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Courses

4.8 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2021

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Introduction

It cannot have escaped your attention that there is a small contingent of our nation that poses a threat to our way of life.

They want us to stop farming our most prized delicacy on the grounds of their 'moral concerns'. We must not let them push us around. As you well know, it has always been an important part of our culture. Why should we assume that this small group of radicals have got it right and that our ancestors have all been wrong? Think of all the memories we've shared when eating the meat around the table with our families. It is a wonderful thing.

Secondly, I have yet to come across anyone who doesn't gain great satisfaction from the delicious taste of the meat. Whether it is in patties, ground mince or slices, it is enjoyed by billions every day. Imagine the backlash if we showed sympathy to the radicals! Think about all the businesses that rely on meat for their income. It would be political suicide.

Finally, and most importantly, we must always remember the natural order of things. We are top of the food chain, and it is our right to exercise our dominion. Every test we have conducted on the creatures have proven them to be inferior, be it intelligence, strength, or a capacity to live what we'd all say is a fulfilling life.

I know that you must feel the same; all I ask is for permission to deal with the radicals. Eating human meat should never be up for debate.

Contents

Part I. History

Part II. Fellow Creatures

Part III. Mere Instruments

Part IV. Further Analysis and Discussion

Links

Carl Cohen, 'Why Animals Have No Rights'.

David DeGrazia, Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction.

Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals.

Lori Gruen, Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals.

Christine M. Korsgaard, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals.

Philip Lymbery, Farmageddon in Pictures: The True Cost of Cheap Meat.

Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter.

Matthieu Ricard, A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion.

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Pan
0:02.0	PAN
0:03.0	Psygast
0:04.0	Part 3, mere instruments.
0:20.0	So in this installment, we're going to be looking at the use of non-human animals in the contemporary world.
0:26.5	We know there are issues which are equally as morally important on an individual level, such as hunting and trapping in the fur industry,
0:34.6	whether or not to have companion animals, rodeos and zoos.
0:37.9	We'll talk about lots of those fringe cases or less pressing cases in next week's
0:44.4	and so on further analysis.
0:46.0	But in this week, we're going to be looking at two key issues.
0:49.1	They are animal experimentation and farming.
0:53.2	Before we get into them, I think we should give perhaps a trigger warning for listeners.
0:58.2	Yeah, so in case you are living under some kind of rock, you don't know what animal experimented.
1:03.5	Which is fine. If you're an animal living under rock, this show.
1:04.9	Yeah, if you're like some kind of slug or something, then well done.
1:07.9	Well done for listening to us, however you are.
1:10.7	But anyway, yeah, so a warning that we're going to be discussing some pretty vivid examples of animal experimentation, which is going to be pretty horrendous just to give you a warning. And if you don't know anything about the conditions of factory farms, then certainly don't Google image it. But we're going to give you your, again, we're going to be, I think with this topic, it's very important that we are honest and that we reflect the research that we've done and we don't sugarcoat it or sanitise it. I think even if you're talking to young people and children about this, it's very important that we are honest with ourselves and with other people about where our food comes from and where a lot of the products that we may consume the history of experimentation that's led to them.
1:46.7	So to do the topic justice and to do the animals that have died in the process of those things justice,
1:51.2	I think it is worth saying, yes, we are not going to sugarcoat anything.
1:54.3	Certainly. You've put that really, really well concept, better myself.
1:56.9	I think on the point of the images, I think if I genuinely showed some of the footage to students, if you showed the students in high school, you might very well lose your job.
2:07.2	Yeah, some of it is pretty great. It's obviously horrific. But As Singer writes in his book, and a lot of the examples we're going to be using are from Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, highly recommended links on the website as well. As Singer puts it,
	...

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