8 quotes
Does it follow that a person is to withhold the performance of the good which may be within his power, because he does not attempt that which may seem beyond it?
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
Axiom 8. That the importance of any action is measured by the degree of pleasure or pain that it causes or prevents.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
First, how do you prove that mankind is invested with the right of killing them, and that brutes have been created for the purpose you assert them to be? Secondly, it is to be observed that the flesh of man himself possesses the same nourishing and palatable qualities? And are we then to become cannibals for that reason?
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
[W]e should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
Axiom 5. That we should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
Y: Do you bear in mind, that in breeding the silkworms, we cause more to come into existence than would otherwise be the case?
Z: Though I think we are unauthorized to destroy or prevent life, life does not appear so desirable that we should perform any action for the sole purpose of producing it. Man does not possess sufficient knowledge, to do either act with design.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
It is strange that philosophers first show how one animal supports itself by destroying another, and then enter into discussions on the apparent admirable order of things in their present state. But though this may be a necessary contrivance, and the only way in which life can be supported, it can never be a beautiful one, in our short sights, notwithstanding that something worse might be, were this not the case.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
[C]ruelty is cruelty under whatever colouring it may appear; and whether exercised on a man or on a fly, cruelty is still cruelty. It matters not whether the victim be furnished with two legs or with four, with wings, with fins, or with arms; where there is sensation, there is subject for cruelty, and in proportion to the degree of sensation will its action operate.
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)