道德共同体中的动物地位与人类责任

The Status of Animals and Human Responsibility towards Them in a Moral Community

近年来,环境伦理学将动物纳入道德共同体范围,赋予动物与人类平等的道德地位。这种扩展是否有效,能否具有实际的伦理意义,引起诸多争议。本文在分析“道德共同体”概念的基础上,尝试从人类的道德感出发来说明动物如何拥有道德地位,以及拥有何种道德地位;同时指出日常生活中三种不同镜像的道德要求,并阐释在道德共同体中人类应当履行基于严格而谨慎的镜像要求的道德责任。

In recent years,environmental ethics has begun to consider animals within the scope of moral community,and it often takes the positions that animals should be endowed with a moral status equal to human beings.The question of whether this extension is reasonable and effective,and whether it has any practical ethical significance has given rise to many debates.By analyzing the concept of moral community,this paper intends to illustrate how human moral sense can assist in allowing animals to have a moral status in community,and examines the kind of moral status that animals should.It also analyzes three different fields pertaining to the moral requirements in daily life,and claims that human beings have this type of moral responsibility for animals based on the stringent and prudent requirements in the moral community.