Required Reading Beauchamp. An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. At the same time, it is becoming less and less clear that this assumption is true. Our technical skills seem to be different only in quality, not in kind, from those of other animals. Lions hunt by splitting up to scare prey into an ambush.
Various animals show a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from sorrow to joy.
In perhaps the most persuasive examples, chimps, gorillas, and one orangutan have been taught sign language, and seem clearly to be using it to communicate. In at least one case, one chimp has independently taught another to sign. But facts by themselves do not tell us what we ought to do. This course will examine these and other related questions in light of two of the most prevalent ethical theories in today's philosophy. We will examine utilitarianism, as elaborated by Mill and expanded upon by Peter Singer, and the way the greatest happiness principle it discusses may affect our view of animals, at least those that feel pleasure and pain.