Telos

摘要

The foundation of animal ethics in the English-speaking world has historically been the ability of animals to experience pleasure and pain. But pleasure and pain are not the only things that matter to animals. Following Aristotle, my work in animal ethics recognises the telos or nature of an animal, the set of interests constitutive of its unique form of life - the 'pigness' of the pig, the 'dogness' of the dog. Thus, an adequate morality towards animals should address not only pleasure and pain, butthe full range of possible 'matterings' following from animals' natures. When we evaluate, for example, gestation crates for sows, we must compare them to what a sow does in nature when she actualises her telos - covering a mile a day rooting and foraging, nest building, all of which behaviours are impossible to perform in a crate. Violation of telos may be more significant to an animal than physical pain. Full satisfaction of telos creates happiness. When telos is added to Plato's point about the mostsuccessful method for expanding people's ethical concerns being reminding rather than teaching, one can create a robust and comprehensive ethic for animals based on what people already believe.