Animals and Rights

Probably the staunchest, and perhaps the only, defender of Animal Rights on Philosophical grounds is Peter Singer, who proposes that the Happiness of animals be included in any Utilitarian calculation.  However, the weakness in that proposal is that its pivotal factor--that animals be included in the concept of the 'Greatest Number'--is not itself determinable without circularity by the Utilitarian principle.  In contrast, Spinoza's system provides two potential rudiments for an extension of the set of Humans to other living beings--that they all possess Natural Rights, and that, as has been previously discussed, qua Rational to any degree, they all possess Political Rights, to at least some degree.  Accordingly, his Naturalism more strongly grounds than does Utilitarianism a counter-argument to the most formidable impediment to a concept of Animal Rights--to the deeply entrenched concept of the Human-Animal distinction as one of radical kind, not one of mere degree.