Red in Tooth and Claw No More: Animal Rights and the Permissibility to Redesign Nature

Environmental Values 31 (2):211-231 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Most non-human animals live in the wild and it is probable that suffering predominates in their lives due to natural events. Humans may at some point be able to engage in paradise engineering, or the modification of nature and animal organisms themselves, to improve the well-being of wild animals. We may, in other words, make nature 'red in tooth and claw' no more. We argue that this creates a tension between environmental ethics and animal ethics which is likely insurmountable. First, we argue that concern for the environment can be compatible with helping individual wild animals but should see redesigning nature as morally impermissible. Second, we argue that if we are concerned with animal well-being, we may reject that we have a duty to help wild animals even to the point of redesigning nature, but we must nevertheless concede that it is permissible to do so under certain circumstances. We show how this permissibility can be derived from three animal rights views: Tom Regan's, a novel account inspired by Thomas Pogge and a libertarian approach to animal rights.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 99,576

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
n/a

Downloads
107 (#175,368)

6 months
13 (#192,605)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Eze Paez
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Connor K. Kianpour
Rhodes College

References found in this work

Animal Liberation.J. Baird Callicott - 1980 - Environmental Ethics 2 (4):311-338.
The ethics of respect for nature.Paul W. Taylor - 1981 - Environmental Ethics 3 (3):197-218.
Animal Suffering in Nature.Oscar Horta - 2017 - Environmental Ethics 39 (3):261-279.
Animal Rights and the Problem of r-Strategists.Kyle Johannsen - 2017 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 20 (2):333-45.

View all 23 references / Add more references