| dc.description.abstract | Nowadays, the trend of being a celibate or DINK and keeping pets as companions influences the relationship between human beings and animals. Most animal are not livestock anymore. By the historical development of moral concern, the moral status belongs to special human races, then tribe liberation, gender liberation and care of non-human species. Companion animals are human’s companions or still animals? If they are human being’s companions, should they have the same moral status as the human have? If not, how do these animals promote themselves to be the human companions?
To explore above questions, this paper intends to find out the root of appropriate animal moral concern, the criterion for the moral expansion and the guideline of the ethical practice from the views of Singer’s utilitarianism, Warren’s mutli-judgement, Nodding’s ethics of care and Confucian moral expansion. The conclusion of this paper includes four points. First, declare the deficiencies of the types of the animal’s moral status. Second, point out the main body and constituent of the moral community should contain moral agents and moral patients by the explanation of animals being in the moral community. Third, discuss the necessity of caring animals and the moral status of companion animals through the views of Confucian concepts of animals and Nodding’s ethics of care. Finally, probe the moral root of caring animals based on the maternal concern which is love.
There are two suggestions in this paper. One is using “the maternal factor” which is based on “love” to break the obstacle – the transition from human relation to ring-lun. On the other hand, since companion animals are different from animals, so give the legal status to them in order to promote their own right to meet the real needs and open a door for human beings to really care about animals.
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