Tom Regan (born November 28, 1938 in
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
) is an
American philosopherAmerican philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...
who specializes in
animal rightsAnimal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans...
theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at
North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States...
, where he taught from 1967 until his retirement in 2001.
Regan is the author of four books on the philosophy of animal rights, including
The Case for Animal Rights, one of a handful of studies that have significantly influenced the modern
animal liberation movementThe animal liberation movement, sometimes called the animal rights movement, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a global movement with roughly three components: philosophical debate, legal development, and direct action...
.
Tom Regan (born November 28, 1938 in
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
) is an
American philosopherAmerican philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...
who specializes in
animal rightsAnimal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans...
theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at
North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States...
, where he taught from 1967 until his retirement in 2001.
Regan is the author of four books on the philosophy of animal rights, including
The Case for Animal Rights, one of a handful of studies that have significantly influenced the modern
animal liberation movementThe animal liberation movement, sometimes called the animal rights movement, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a global movement with roughly three components: philosophical debate, legal development, and direct action...
. In these, he argues that non-human animals are what he calls the "subjects-of-a-life," just as humans are, and that, if we want to ascribe value to all human beings regardless of their ability to be
rationalIn philosophy, rationality and reason are the key methods used to analyze the data gathered through systematically gathered observations. In economics, sociology, and political science, a decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals or organizations...
agents, then to be consistent, we must similarly ascribe it to non-humans.
Background
Regan graduated from
Thiel CollegeThiel College is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and located in Greenville, Pennsylvania, United States. - About Thiel:...
in 1960, receiving his M.A. in 1962 and his Ph.D. in 1966 from the
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. He taught philosophy at North Carolina State University from 1967 until 2001.
Animal rights
In
The Case for Animal Rights, Regan argues that non-human animals bear moral
rightRights are entitlements or permissions, usually of a legal or moral nature. Rights are of vital importance in the fields of law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.-Theoretical distinctions:...
s. His philosophy aligns broadly within the tradition of
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg...
, though he rejects Kant's idea that respect is due only to
rationalIn philosophy, rationality and reason are the key methods used to analyze the data gathered through systematically gathered observations. In economics, sociology, and political science, a decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals or organizations...
beings. Regan points out that we routinely ascribe inherent
valueValue theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree humans should value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...
, and thus the right to be treated with
respectRespect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
, to
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
s who are not rational, including
infantAn infant or baby is the term used to refer to the very young offspring of humans and other primates.-Infant:The term infant derives from the Latin word infans, meaning "unable to speak."...
s and the severely mentally
impairedDisability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities."...
.
The crucial attribute that all humans have in common, he argues, is not rationality, but the fact that each of us has a life that matters to us; in other words, what happens to us matters to us, regardless of whether it matters to anyone else. In Regan's terminology, we each experience being the
"subject-of-a-life."In philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity . A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed...
If this is the true basis for ascribing inherent value to individuals, to be consistent we must ascribe inherent value, and hence moral rights, to all subjects-of-a-life, whether human or non-human. The basic right that all who possess inherent value have, he argues, is the right never to be treated merely as a means to the ends of others.
In Regan's view, not to be used as a means entails the right to be treated with respect, which includes the right not to be harmed. This right, however, is not absolute, as, there are times when to respect someone’s right not to be harmed, another’s right not to be harmed must be overridden. His philosophy employs principles such as the miniride principle (a.k.a. minimize overriding) and the worse-off principle to deal with these situations. The miniride principle is that when faced with overriding the rights of many innocent beings versus the rights of few innocent beings—when each individual involved would be equally harmed—we should override the rights of the few. The worse-off principle states that, when individuals involved are not harmed in a comparable way given a certain course of action, we should mitigate the situation of those who would be worse-off. Thus, if the harm of a few innocent beings is less than the harm to many innocent beings, the right action is to override the rights of the many. As this relates to animal rights, Regan asserts an animal’s harm in death is not tantamount to the human’s harm in similar circumstance. This is supposedly because the ending of an animal life entails the loss of fewer opportunities when compared to the loss of a human’s. In Regan’s view then, when having to choose between an animal life and a human life, or even the lives of many animals and a human life, the human life ought always have priority.
Supporters argue that Regan's argument for animal rights does not rely on a radical new theory of ethics, but that it follows from a consistent application of moral principles and
insightsIntuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. “The word ‘intuition’ comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ‘to look inside’ or ‘to contemplate’." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily...
that many of us already hold with respect to the ethical treatment of human beings. However, others criticize the lack of certainty with which Regan's "inherent value" or "subject-of-a-life" status can be determined, and note that the sufficient conditions he lists — for example, having
sense-perceptionsIn philosophy, psychology, and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. It is a task far more complex than was imagined in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was predicted that building perceiving machines would take about a decade,...
,
beliefBelief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.- Belief, knowledge and epistemology :The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
s, desires,
motiveMotivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation may be internal or external. The term is generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
s, and
memoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....
— in effect reduce to "similarity to humans".
According to Regan, it follows from the ascription to animals of the basic right to be treated with respect that we should abolish the breeding of animals for
foodMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs, livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, or lungs...
,
animal experimentationAnimal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. It is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide — from zebrafish to non-human primates — are used annually...
, and commercial
huntingHunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
. Regan himself is a self-confessed 'muddler.' Starting as a leather-wearing, circus-visiting meat eater, a series of musings, experiences, and insights led him to conclude he was morally unable to use animals for meat, clothing or, other purpose that does not respect their rights.
Works
- Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights, published by Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, (2004). ISBN 0-7425-3352-2, 229 pages.
- Tom Regan. "Die Tierrechtsdebatte". Interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgemeinschaft Tierethik (Hrsg.). Tierrechte - Eine interdisziplinäre Herausforderung. Erlangen 2007. ISBN 978-3-89131-417-3
- The Case for Animal Rights, University of California Press (1983, 1985, 2004)
- All That Dwell Therein: Essays on Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics (1982)
- Animal Sacrifices: Religious Perspectives on the Use of Animals in Science (1986)
- Defending Animal Rights, University of Illinois Press (2001). ISBN 0-252-02611-X
See also
- Intrinsic value (animal ethics)
This article is about human concern for animals. For rules of conduct between animals and other animal behaviour, see Ethology.The intrinsic value of an animal refers to the value it possesses in its own right, as an end-in-itself, as opposed to its Instrumental value, its value to other animals...
- Animal Liberation Front
The Animal Liberation Front is a name used internationally by animal liberation activists who engage in direct action on behalf of animals. This includes removing animals from laboratories and fur farms and sabotaging various facilities...
- Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group
- Argument from Marginal Cases
The Argument from Marginal Cases is a philosophical argument regarding the moral status of animals. Its proponents hold that if animals do not have direct moral status due to their lack of rationality or other psychic ability, then neither do other members of society such as infants, the senile,...
- Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. With two million members and supporters worldwide, it claims the status of the largest animal rights group in the world...
- Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics , University of Melbourne...
- Stephen Clark
Stephen Richard Lyster Clark is a British philosopher and international authority on animal rights, currently professor of philosophy at the University of Liverpool....
- Animal rights
Animal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans...
- Rodney Coronado
- Barry Horne
Barry Horne was an English animal rights activist who died of liver failure in Ronkswood Hospital, Worcester in November 2001...
, Henry SpiraHenry Spira is widely regarded as one of the most effective animal rights activists of the 20th century....
- GANDALF trial
GANDALF was an acronym for the 1997 UK trial of the editors of Green Anarchist magazine, as well as two prominent British supporters of the Animal Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group, on charges of "Conspiracy to Incite Criminal Damage".-Overview and background:Starting...
- Craig Rosebraugh
Craig Rosebraugh is a writer and political activist who has been associated with the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front , and who has served as a spokesman for both groups' press offices.- Activism :...
- Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. It is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide — from zebrafish to non-human primates — are used annually...
, VivisectionFrom Latin vivus + sectio , Vivisection is surgery conducted upon a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to directly view living internal structure for purposes other than the health of the subject....
- Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of following a diet based on plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds, with or without dairy products and eggs. Vegetarians do not eat meat, game, poultry, fish, crustacea, shellfish, or products of animal slaughter such as...
, VeganismVeganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights,...
- List of American philosophers
External links