17/04: Rights for Great Apes?
Category: Courts
Posted by: an okie gardener
Reader and commentator Photognome points us to this article on a court case in Austria that may give rights to apes.
Personally, I am against cruelty to animals, and think that the more intelligent animals (such as chimps, elephants, dolphins, etc) deserve special protection. I am not sure that the structure of "rights" is the best way to go, though. I see potential court problems if this is the approach taken.
On a related note, while I think the idea of human rights is a handy way of thinking and talking, the idea has its limits. Perhaps it is no accident that neither of the two pillars of Western thought--Greek philosophy and Judaism/Christianity--think in terms of rights. Both think in terms of justice tied into a suprahuman agency.
Personally, I am against cruelty to animals, and think that the more intelligent animals (such as chimps, elephants, dolphins, etc) deserve special protection. I am not sure that the structure of "rights" is the best way to go, though. I see potential court problems if this is the approach taken.
On a related note, while I think the idea of human rights is a handy way of thinking and talking, the idea has its limits. Perhaps it is no accident that neither of the two pillars of Western thought--Greek philosophy and Judaism/Christianity--think in terms of rights. Both think in terms of justice tied into a suprahuman agency.
