动物道德的哲学选择

Philosophical Choices of Animal Morality

动物是否有道德?关于这个问题,研究者之间的分歧多于共识。首先,本文梳理这一问题若干争议的分歧点;其次,重构几种典型的立场和论证思路,包括支持动物道德的经验主义立场和反对动物道德的理性主义思路;最后,本文讨论并评估一种名为“物种相对主义”的哲学主张,这种支持动物道德的主张基于动物认知行为学的新近进展,还综合了动物行为学、脑神经科学等领域的科学证据,与竞争理论比较,这是一种有前景的理解人类道德和动物道德的哲学选择。

Is there animal morality? Disagreement outnumber consensus on this question. This paper firstly sorts out a number of controversial points of arguments on this question. Secondly, it reconstructs several typical positions and demonstrations, including the pro-animal morality position of empiricism and anti-animal morality thinking of rationalism. Finally, this paper discusses and evaluates a philosophical claim called “Species Relativism”, which supports animal morality on the basis of recent advances in animal cognitive behavior and also integrates scientific evidence from animal behavior, brain neuroscience and other fields. In contrast to competition theory, this new claim is a promising philosophical alternative for understanding human and animal morality.