Abstract

Bentham is celebrated by modern animal liberation philosophers for his brief but impassioned defense of animals in the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Yet the details of Bentham's position are seldom discussed today. It is quite a complex position, comprising half a dozen arguments scattered across several texts. While Bentham claims that we have some moral obligations to animals, he also defends many traditional practices---including eating animals, making them work for us, even hunting them. ;This dissertation aims to explicate, and then evaluate, all of Bentham's writings on animals. In support of these goals, it also includes a large amount of background material---both on the historical context in which Bentham wrote, and on his broader ethical position. ;Chapter One describes the treatment of animals in Bentham's day, and how people's ideas about the status of animals were evolving. It also includes some biographical material on Bentham, including his personal fondness for animals. ;Chapter Two provides a different kind of background. It explains the main lines of Bentham's utilitarianism, focusing on his Greatest Happiness Principle. This principle, which enjoins us to maximize net pleasure, is the basis for Bentham's claim that animals should be protected from abuse. Chapter Three is a detailed exegesis of each of Bentham's writings about animals. The best-known text is the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, but there are three others. One is a manuscript called "Cruelty to Animals". Another is a letter he wrote to the editor of a newspaper . The third is the Traites de Legislation Civile et Penale , a French work that Bentham wrote with the assistance of an editor/translator. ;Finally, Chapters Four and Five evaluate the arguments described in Chapter Three. Chapter Four focuses on what he says about causing pain to animals, while Chapter Five is concerned with what he says about killing