CGS HU 201 Study Guide - Comprehensive Final Exam Guide - Soul, Plato, Aristotle
21 Nov 2018
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Vivisectors claimed they deliberately suppressed their feelings to perform scientifically necessary experiments: where there was reason, there could be no cruelty. In pioneering essay on vivisection anita guerrini: the debate is a predominantly anthropocentric one in which the suffering of animals and their rights or interests were less important than the effects of vivisection on the experimenter"s morals and reputation. People of the lower classes were thought to treat animals cruelly because they lacked feeling or actually enjoyed seeing them suffer. Argument was that cruelty to animals led to violence against humans. Chief concern was not the suffering of the victim but the intentions behind the perpetrator. Experiments on living animals were uncommon in the 1820s (fewer than 1,000 a year) and british medical men were said to have a horror of them. Necessary experiments that might significantly advance knowledge were usually regarded as acceptable and proponents of experimentation.
