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NONHUMAN ANIMAL ETHICS: OUTLINING A DUTY OF CARE FOR THE DEPENDENT

Bojan SPAIĆ, Sava VOJNOVIĆ

10.51204/Anali_PFBU_25405A
САЖЕТАК /

The authors examine the ethical foundations of humanity’s responsibilities toward nonhuman animals, emphasizing the intuition that special duties arise toward beings unable to protect or provide for themselves. Contemporary variants of traditional theories, such as utilitarianism and deontology, have made notable progress in extending moral concern to animals by recognizing their sentience, interests, and inherent worth. The authors argue that such theories still fall short of fully capturing the relational and context-sensitive obligations humans feel toward vulnerable beings: utilitarianism reduces moral claims to aggregate calculations that risk justifying exploitation, while deontological and rights-based approaches often frame duties in abstract or hierarchical terms. The authors contend that care ethics provides a stronger foundation, by foregrounding dependence and empathetic responsibility. By integrating rational reflection with moral emotions and imagination, care ethics better aligns with human moral sentiments and offers a framework of guardianship that extends duties of care beyond merely proximate relationships.

ЧЛАНАК ЈЕ РАСПОЛОЖИВ НА /
Енглеском  
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