John Dewey and the ethics of animal experimentation

the beginning of a pragmatist debate on anti-speciesist moral deliberation

Abstract

The work aims to highlight the ethics of animal experimentation in John Dewey, observing whether it is possible to propose an anti-speciesist moral deliberation. Thus, we will analyze the Deweyan way of allying an ethics focused on human progress, even if it results in behaviors that trigger the exploitation of non-human animals, gradually verifying if it is possible to propose a moral deliberation in a creative way through the human experience and that benefits the non-human animals. At first, the concept of speciesism will be exposed, as well as its derivation, anthropocentric speciesism, which will be detailed, to show how human animals incur certain arguments that make the exploitation of non-human animals viable, especially in the discussion of Deweyan pragmatism. Second, we will deepen the issue of speciesism through a pragmatic attitude, which, in addition to highlighting the moral barrier from Dewey’s classic pragmatism, will also show arguments in favor of moral deliberations that promote the well-being of non-human animals, according to with contemporary pragmatism, since this debate on animal welfare in the context of pragmatist morality is recent. Our work relies on the theoretical contribution of Dewey (2020), Fesmire (2004), Singer (2010), among others. The research indicates that by manifesting an expansive possibility of experience, through human nature, created by a network of mutual social relationships that is in constant movement, and that needs to adapt to new ethical understandings, it is possible to align both emotions and human sympathy to enable new creative social experiences that spark moral deliberations that favor diverse sentient beings.