ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างมนุษย์กับสัตว์ในทัศนะของปีเตอร์ ซิงเกอร์

Abstract

The thesis entitled “The relationship between human and animal from Peter Singer’s perspective”. The objectives of this research were to study the relationship between human and animal from Peter Singer’s perspective, in the aspect of using animals as food and research subjects. This research was a documentary research based on the Animal Liberation book by Peter Singer and his other works as a conceptual framework. The results of the study indicated that problems in the relationship between human and animal derive from a speciesism in a human society, meaning an unreasonable bias or view towards other lives. The relationships between human and animal are in the direction of an exploitation of animals because animals are classified to be lower than humans. The lives of animals are therefore only to satisfy the goal of humans. Singer, as an ethicist who was influenced by the concept of utilitarianism, has an opinion that ethics should not be limited to only humans but should also extend to other lives as well in order to improve the status of animals to be equal to humans as animals could perceive pain, especially mammals that have senses similar to humans and could perceive suffering. Therefore, it was necessary to consider the equality between animals and humans. As a practical ethicist, Singer’s concept is based on changing ideas on an individual level and convincing to take action rather than a theoretical argument. In his perspective, to gain benefits, humans need to change their behavior by creating happiness rather than suffering that will occur with animals.