Volume XI · Advanced level
How Do the Various Ethical Theories Approach the Animal Question?
Exploring the relationship between normative ethics and applied ethics
About this volume
This book presents an introduction to the main theories of value and normative ethics and to how they apply to our decisions that affect nonhuman animals.
ISBN 978-65-01-72085-2 · 1st edition, September 2025. Original text by Luciano Carlos Cunha, translated into English.
In a nutshell
Utilitarianism, prioritarianism, egalitarianism, Kantianism, contractualism, virtue ethics, ethics of care: what does each theory say about animals? This volume introduces value theory and theories of well-being, and shows that, even though they disagree on foundations, the main theories imply equal consideration.
For kids
Different people explain in different ways why it is wrong to hit someone: because it causes pain, because it breaks a rule, because good people do not do that. This book shows that whichever of these paths you take, you end up concluding that animals matter too.
You will learn
- The central distinctions of value theory
- Theories of well-being and where they converge
- The focal point of the major schools of normative ethics
- Why so many different theories imply equal consideration
It helps to have read: Volumes I and II. This is the most technical volume.
Starting from scratch?
Every chapter has a simplified version, written for readers new to the topic. Read the simple version first, then the author’s full text.
- An Introduction to the Central Distinctions in Value Theory
- An Introduction to Theories of Well-Being
- Assessing How Good/Bad a Situation Containing Several Individuals Is
- Value Judgments, Descriptions of Facts, Objectivity, and Subjectivity
- Categories of Normative Ethical Theories
- To What Extent Do Ethical Theories Agree About What We Owe Animals?
- Weighing Criteria
Chapters
- 1An Introduction to the Central Distinctions in Value Theory20 min
Value theory investigates what is good or bad, better or worse; it distinguishes intrinsic value from instrumental value, "better than" from "best of all," and what is good in a certain respect from what is good all things considered.
- 2An Introduction to Theories of Well-Being26 min
Theories of well-being investigate what makes someone's life go well (experiences, preferences, objective goods, or combinations of these); despite their disagreements, there is a minimal convergence: animals are seriously harmed in the situations they live in.
- 3Assessing How Good/Bad a Situation Containing Several Individuals Is8 min
Evaluating a situation involving many individuals involves several aspects (total well-being, priority to the worse off, equality, sufficiency, desert), which can be seen as having intrinsic or instrumental value, and which sometimes conflict.
- 4Value Judgments, Descriptions of Facts, Objectivity, and Subjectivity12 min
Value judgments are not necessarily subjective in the sense of "having no truth": every being who suffers experiences suffering as bad in itself; some things cannot be explained without their value, and we must not confuse value with ethics, or "everyone" with "some people."
- 5Categories of Normative Ethical Theories24 min
Normative theories fall into consequentialism, deontology, and character-centered ethics, which differ in their focal point (consequences, rules, or character traits); even so, they converge a great deal, including on equal consideration for sentient beings.
- 6To What Extent Do Ethical Theories Agree About What We Owe Animals?66 min
Utilitarianism, maximin, prioritarianism, egalitarianism, sufficientarianism, their negative versions, pluralist approaches, Kantianism, discourse ethics, contractualism, and character ethics all imply, for different reasons, equal consideration for sentient beings, the rejection of exploitation, and reasons to help wild animals.
- 7Weighing Criteria37 min
When a situation is good in one respect and bad in another, there are many ways to weigh the criteria: incommensurability, monism, pluralism with equal weights, trumps, fixed or variable weights, maximin, sufficiency, hybrid approaches, indeterminacy, and probabilistic aggregation, each with its own advantages and problems.