Tatjana Višak (Mannheim University), “Are Plants Welfare Subjects?”
Channel: Radio-CRÉ
Date: 2017-10-30

If, as I assume here, only welfare grounds reasons for action, plants matter directly if and only they are welfare subjects.

In this talk, I argue that plants are not welfare subjects. Unlike other arguments for this claim, mine does not presuppose the truth of any particular account of welfare. First, I point out that accounts of welfare aim at identifying the final prudential good or goods. Second,
I defend the view called welfare invariabilism, which says that the true account of welfare is true for all welfare subjects. Third, I argue that the goods that are available to plants cannot be final goods for all welfare subjects. Therefore the one true account of welfare,
whatever it is, implies that plants are not welfare subjects.

Even if only welfare grounds reasons for action and plants are not welfare subjects, what we do to plants matters. This is because of the many effects that plants have on the welfare of welfare subjects.

Caméra et montage : Marc-Antoine Plouffe