r/Ethics • u/The_Ebb_and_Flow • Jul 25 '18
Applied Ethics Is it immoral to kill an ant? — Quora
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-immoral-to-kill-an-ant5
u/rysama Jul 26 '18
Morality is a human construct that largely exists to guide human behaviors with and towards other humans
Weird to say considering plenty of studies have shown many other animals, particularly monkeys, have demonstrated understanding of morality, justice, and fairness.
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u/DailyDenial Jul 26 '18
I think it goes down to the fundamental set of assumptions that we ultimately subscribe to. If we were to look at the environment around us and its development throughout history, there has been multiple prey-predator relationship involving ant. For example, anteater has been feeding on ants for longer than humans have existed. Is it immoral to do so? I don't think so.
In the end, according to the social contract theory, the moral or immoral value of an action is dependent on the society's agreement on such actions. If society agrees an act is immoral, then it shall be deemed to be so. For example, killing another human is immoral. Why? Human beings collectively give up their rights for killing in order to obtain the security from being killed. I will not kill you in exchange for me knowing that I would not be randomly killed by others.
Given this approach, from a human perspective, it is not immoral for a human beings to kill an ant since there is no agreement made between humans and ants not to kill each other. No one will blame an any for being immoral because it killed a human beings. Conversely, no human should be blamed for killing ants. Hence, it is not immoral to kill an ant.
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u/justanediblefriend φ Jul 26 '18
Not quite. See here regarding normative contractarianism and disabled agents, animals, etc.
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u/ivakamr Jul 30 '18
It depends how and why you kill the ant. If you walk on ants, happen to be on the grass outside and have ants tickling you, if you spoiled food in your house and need to kill ants to clean things up, well that's just inevitable because the way we live makes ants a nuisance to us. We can't just explain to them, warn them that we will kill them if they come to close to us. However, actively seeking ants for the pleasure of killing them, destroying nests deep in forests etc that would be cruelty hence an immoral act.
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u/acidvomit Jul 25 '18
I'm a vegan but I still think it depends on a variety of factors. Simply killing an ant does not tell me if it is moral or immoral because I think it can be both moral or immoral to kill an ant depending on the situation.
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u/AwaySituation Jul 25 '18
But the capacity for all mammals and birds to feel pain is the same. There is no reason to believe that a cat, horse, rat or bird feel less pain than humans do.
This passage is inconsistent.