Arthur Schopenhauer's view on animal rights
Philosophical thought / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19th-century German philosopher. He was an early defender of animal rights, going against the prevailing idea at the time that animals had no rights and only had instrumental value to humans. According to Schopenhauer, "The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."[1] Schopenhauer argued that animals should be treated with respect and compassion, as they, like humans, are subjected to the metaphysical will, and experience suffering and craving as a result.