Kant would certainly agree with Cohen, but there are many who criticize that view as outdated and inhumane.
Kant's views do not acknowledge that animals could have feelings. Singer continues, "[W]e know that these animals have nervous systems very like ours, which respond physiologically like ours do when the animal is in circumstances in which we would feel pain: an initial rise of blood pressure, dilated pupils, perspiration, an increased pulse rate, and, if the stimulus continues, a fall in blood pressure" (Singer). Anyone who has interacted with animals has seen an animal react sharply to pain or punishment, and many studies have been completed that animals have complex brains, and some have extremely complex societies, with clear leaders and pecking orders, such as wolves and elephants. Animals can express their pain with cries, screams, and avoidance of the things that cause pain, which means not only do they feel and understand pain; they are wise enough to avoid it and can learn to avoid it.
Kant would probably agree with animal testing, as it can aid the treatment of many human diseases, and the harm of a few animals for the good of rational human beings makes perfect sense. However, if animals can indeed feel pain and can suffer, then animal testing is often cruel and abusive. Kant might agree morally with using animals to save human lives, but a visit to a testing laboratory might change his view. Many of the cruelties these labs use in the name of science are difficult to view. Cohen believes that using animals in all testing does not make sense, but it does make sense in areas where there is the most risk to humans in testing. However, another animal rights expert disagrees. He writes, "Rights thought dictates that we cannot kill one rights-holder to save another - or even more than one other - whether or not the life of the former is 'different' from that of the latter" (Zak 281). This certainly is far from Kant's views on animals and their value to society. Kant feels they have little value other...
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Immanuel Kant Freedom Motive and Duty Kant believed possessing and maintaining one's moral goodness is the very condition under which anything else is worth having or pursuing. Intelligence and even pleasure are worth having only on the condition that they do not require giving up one's fundamental moral convictions. The value of a good will thus cannot be that it gains certain valuable ends, whether of our own or of others, since
Immanuel Kant that the particular divisions of ancient philosophy be explained so that he may offer his reconciliation between the major accomplishments of the past by avoiding their drawbacks. Essentially, many of Kant's philosophical efforts can be seen as innovative reactions to the brilliantly constructed skepticism of David Hume. Hume made it obvious that both the rationalists and empiricists must be wrong -- or at least only partially right
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