Course Reflection

I have noticed a big change in my writing since the beginning of the semester. I understand now what is required of me when I write papers and I am far more confident in my writing skills. As far as the animal related course material, a whole new world was opened up to me this semester. I was honestly very interested in the theories in the Animal Ethics Reader, and I was stunned by everything we have recently learned about factory farms. In the AER I was very interested by Peter Singer's and Tom Regan's Essays on Animal ethics. They approach the issue from two one completely different angles. Regan with a theoretical approach and Singer with a practical approach. These two essays taught me how there is always a variety of ways to get your ideas across, and you can use this to your advantage depending on who the essay is targeted towards.

Human/Non-Human Animals

After reading the passages from "The Animal Ethics Reader" I have a rather clear idea of the difference between human animals and non-human animals. The main difference, as I see it, is that human animals have the ability to follow a moral code where as non-human animals simply have interests but no code to follow. Both humans and non-humans can have interests, but the interests held by non-humans are more primal and based upon their well being. Those interests that are held by humans include the aforementioned ones of non-humans but also include moral interests.