by Mitchell Beanland

Created on: May 25, 2009

We see that social conventions can sometimes dictate how we live if we exist within the confines of a culture or society. And of course we know some social conventions are positive, such as laws to uphold the community, and others negative based on objective reasons for and against. For example slavery, which was a socially normal convention in times past, yet we had reason to think it was wrong. So, slavery was abolished. We know that rape, child abuse, and murder are morally wrong in most, if not all societies, yet the lifelong torture of animals for our palate is overlooked as a normal and morally upright, or at least morally neutral act in this day and age. We see the distance between us and our animal companions growing as more factory farms mass produce animal derived products solely for our pleasure. This essay will discuss qualities that define us as humans, reflecting on where animals stand as our companions, the treatment they endure to become our food, and whether they receive the rights they deserve.

A person is a rational, self-conscious, and autonomous being. To be defined as a person, one must understand the concepts of objects or things.
From understanding concepts we can make judgments, and we can give reasons why we have those judgements, for example, judging an object to be a bone. I can say I think this is a bone because it has the shape of a bone, and my reasoning tells me if I am right or not. Once reasons have been given I can make inferences, stating perhaps that because the bone is smaller than other bones I've seen, it could be a child's bone. This is the basis of self-consciousness as we are aware of ourselves making judgements, which requires rationality.

Because we can reason and pass judgement we can choose between conflicting courses of action, which leads us to freedom of choice which means we can choose to do what is right, or what is wrong. It is in our hands, which means we have moral responsibility. These traits make a person, but as the influential utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer would say, not all persons are human beings, in fact some human beings aren't persons, and some animals are. We think of the animals like Booee the ape that can communicate using American Sign Language. He was a rational, self-conscious and autonomous being but was kept in a cage as property of laboratory owners, who were doing tests on him. No human person should be treated like this, so no other being, let alone a person should be either.

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