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Articles

Descartes versus Cudworth On The Moral Worth of Animals

Samuel Kaldas compares two views on the nature of animals and their implications for our moral responsibility towards them.

“No one understands animals who does not see that every one of them, even amongst the fishes, it may be with a dimness and vagueness infinitely remote, yet shadows the human…”
– George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (1872)

Back in March 2008 the collective rage of the internet was roused against a U.S. Marine who was filmed throwing a puppy over a cliff. The grainy footage posted on YouTube showed the soldier holding the small black and white puppy by the scruff of the neck and remarking how cute it is before violently flinging it over the edge. Naturally enough, the public was outraged, and the Marine in question was discharged.

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