Philosophy, ethics and veterinary medicine

Duration

16h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

N..., Marc Vandenheede

Substitute(s)

Pieter Thyssen

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

This course offers a philosophical introduction to the main questions that structure contemporary debates about the moral status of animals. In particular, it examines the criteria by which some beings are included in the moral community while others are excluded. The guiding question of the course will therefore be: who belongs to the moral community, and why?

Lesson 1: Introduction to Animal Ethics - From Speciesism to Animal Liberation
This lesson provides a historical introduction to the shift from human exceptionalism-the idea that only human beings matter morally, a form of speciesism-towards views that also extend moral consideration to other animals, such as animal liberation.

Lesson 2: Normative Ethics - Moral Frameworks for Applied Ethics
This lesson introduces the main theories in normative ethics used to evaluate actions morally: consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. It also introduces, more broadly, how meta-ethics can help us reflect on the choice between different moral frameworks.

Lesson 3: Philosophy of Biology - Evolutionary Theory and the Species Problem
This lesson examines how evolutionary theory challenges the idea of a fundamental divide between human beings and other animals. It also addresses the "species problem": if the boundaries between species are sometimes difficult to define, can species membership really serve as a decisive moral criterion?

Lesson 4: Philosophy of Mind - Animal Sentience and Cognition
This lesson starts from the observation that, in many contemporary theories, only sentient animals are considered part of the moral community. We will therefore study sentience-the capacity to experience pain and pleasure-as well as its relationship to consciousness and cognition. We will also ask how we can determine which animals are actually capable of suffering.

Lesson 5: Philosophy of Medicine - Animal Welfare, Health, and Disease
This lesson addresses the concepts of welfare, health, and disease in animals. In particular, it examines whether these concepts are purely biological or whether they also involve value judgments, as well as the ethical issues surrounding suffering, death, and veterinary euthanasia.

The primary aim of this course is to establish the philosophical foundations needed to explore, in subsequent years, the major questions in animal ethics and the related themes in greater depth.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

This course aims to introduce students to the main philosophical and ethical questions raised by veterinary medicine.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Distinguish, understand, and explain the philosophical foundations of animal and veterinary ethics, as well as its main schools of thought.
  
  
• Explain the concepts of exceptionalism, animalism, and speciesism in relation to the moral status of animals.
  
  
• Situate the concepts of intelligence, sentience, and consciousness in order to understand animals' subjective experience in different domestic contexts.
  
  
• Define animal health and welfare from naturalist and normativist perspectives, and identify the ethical dilemmas they raise in various veterinary contexts.
  
  
• Critically examine animal death and the role of the veterinarian in different contexts, including euthanasia, slaughter, and depopulation.
  
  

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

None.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Theoretical lectures with interactive activities (via Wooclap and other tools).

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Further information:

Each lesson will be taught by a different instructor and will last either 2 or 4 hours.

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus


Further information:

There are no course notes.

Students will receive a detailed course outline during the first class session.

The slides used during the course will also be made available to students throughout the semester (as PDF files on eCampus).

Further Reading

Most of the issues addressed during the course are introduced and discussed in:

• Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction, by Samir Okasha (Oxford University Press, 2019, 130 pp.)
  
  
• Ethics of Animal Use, by Peter Sandøe and Stine B. Christiansen (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 194 pp.)
  
  
• Animal Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction, by Bob Fischer (Routledge, 2021, 253 pp.)
  
  
• An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics: Theory and Cases, by Bernard E. Rollin (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, 2nd edition, 352 pp.)
  
  
• Ethics in Veterinary Practice: Balancing Conflicting Interests, edited by Barry Kipperman and Bernard E. Rollin (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022, 576 pp.)
  
  

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( multiple-choice questionnaire )

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

The course takes place during the first semester and is organised in week 46, from Monday 9 November to Friday 13 November, in four four-hour morning sessions:

• Monday 9 November, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Tuesday 10 November, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Thursday 12 November, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Friday 13 November, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Contacts

Pieter THYSSEN

Department of Philosophy
Building A1, 2nd floor, room A1/2/32B
Place du 20-Août, 7
B-4000 Liège

p.thyssen@uliege.be

Association of one or more MOOCs

There is no MOOC associated with this course.