Essay plan for : Critically analyse the extent to which modern theories of rights, which are increasingly being applied to rights beyond the merely human, represent a new paradigm or are simply the application of old ideas the new si
Rights, Law & History of Ideas
Essay plan for : ‘Critically analyse the extent to which modern theories of rights, which are increasingly being applied to rights beyond the merely ‘human’, represent a new paradigm or are simply the application of old ideas the new situations’
I will start off by looking at what a right is. The topic I will be focusing my essay on is, the animal rights theory. I will then go on to look at some of the rights given to humans. I shall then ask the question, do animals have rights? What types of rights do they have? I will also be looking generally, at different views on whether animals should be given rights or not.
I will be looking at how people’s views on animal rights have evolved over time, and how early philosophers like Aristotle who was of the view that the most important thing was the power of reasoning, he said that only humans can reason so they are the most important beings; Descartes thought that animals cannot feel pain he felt they are mere automatons and so they should not have rights , and Kant who believed that animals are not conscious and may therefore be used as a means to an end, as a way of getting something. They were of the general view that animals do not have rights.