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Typical – and one might say also fundamental – questions in the field of animal ethics are for instance Do animals have an inherent value?, Is there a morally relevant difference between humans and animals?, Do animals have rights? (e.g. Hoerster 2004; Regan 2004; Singer 2009) etc.. These issues are widely discussed and it seems as if they have to be solved to clarify many other questions related to this debate. In this contribution, I argue that one of the challenges to answering these questions lies in using the term “animal”. Even if some authors already elaborate their arguments by replacing “animal” by “non-human animal”, the fundamental problem that the concept of the word “animal” entails, remains: Also the qualified term “non- human animals” still includes every kind of non-human creature, from a mosquito to a chimpanzee. However, does it not make a difference if we talk for example about rights for mosquitoes or rights for chimpanzees? Not only the differences between chimpanzees and mosquitos are significant, hence also the differences between chimpanzees and humans diverge from the differences between mosquitoes and humans. Thus, how can we detect and judge about morally relevant differences between “animals and humans” or discuss about “animal rights” or an “inherent value of animals” when we talk about non-human creatures as if they all had identical properties? It seems that we cannot meet the individual needs of non-human beings as long as we consider them as one species. Analyzing closely various examples, such as the above mentioned “animals” rights, the differences between humans and “animals” and the idea of an inherent value of “animals” it will be argued that in the discourse about how to treat non-human creatures we should differentiate even if not between single individuals, but at least between every single species. This differentiation may lead to more precise and convincing arguments for a more ethical treatment of every kind of “non-human” being. Carmen Krämer(Department of Philosophy/Human Technology Center, RWTH Aachen University) Comments are closed.
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