Animals and Albert Schweitzer
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA
January 19, 2007
By Ingrid E. Newkirk
January marks the 131st anniversary of the birth of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a giant of a man whose legacy of kindness has trickled down through the years and still touches us today. Equally important to the poor people he served in equatorial Africa and to the wounded and orphaned animals he took in, from pelicans to pigs to baby gorillas, he worked to stop everyone’s pain and suffering. He still found time to author many books, including the ambitious The Philosophy of Civilization, a guide to ways in which our ethical beliefs can be the driving force in our lives.
A dose of Schweitzer’s philosophy would do us a world of good in today’s complex society.
Schweitzer believed that our obligation to be ethical should never be abstract. He suggested that that we consciously decide what we believe to be right and good conduct—in his case, a reverence for all life—and that, rather than wandering through life robotically, we should truly live it by being active participants.
Underlying this was his belief that our principles should compel us to effect the changes in conduct that we know we should and to persuade others to make them, too, even if it meant sacrifice and self-discipline. In other words, we shouldn’t simply ponder our lives and observe others around us, but rather, we should take actions that will help make the world better for our having passed through it.
Schweitzer, although himself a scientist, thought that laypeople were far more important in the world than scientists. Laypeople, he argued, are more in touch with life than those who feel the compulsion to examine and dissect it bit by bit. So Schweitzer believed, as did Lin Yu Tang, the Chinese philosopher, that “to comprehend the organs of the horse is not to comprehend the horse itself.”
Put another way, to smell the flower and appreciate it is superior to plucking it and taking apart its petals. And to know a gentle cow’s personality is preferable to eating her.
Schweitzer, a vegetarian, believed that it is only possible to be truly ethical when we “obey the compunction to help all life … and shrink from injuring anything that lives.”
He looked out for others because he felt it his obligation.
Schweitzer’s philosophy is similar to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ belief that we must stand up, speak out and give of ourselves to stop unthinking and deliberate acts of cruelty to all those around us.
We need a boundless ethics that includes the animals also,” he said. It is important, he believed, to give sympathy based on how much someone else—animal or human—suffers, rather than on some arbitrary measure of value. A worm was no less valuable for being “lowly” and Schweitzer was not afraid to be thought sentimental for moving a stranded earthworm from the pavement into the grass.
Just imagine what our world could be—think of the suffering we could stop—if everyone, from the lowly to the most exalted, were valued and treated as though they mattered.
Ingrid Newkirk is president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.peta2.com. Her latest book is 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals (Warner 2006).
January marks the 131st anniversary of the birth of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a giant of a man whose legacy of kindness has trickled down through the years and still touches us today. Equally important to the poor people he served in equatorial Africa and to the wounded and orphaned animals he took in, from pelicans to pigs to baby gorillas, he worked to stop everyone’s pain and suffering. He still found time to author many books, including the ambitious The Philosophy of Civilization, a guide to ways in which our ethical beliefs can be the driving force in our lives.
A dose of Schweitzer’s philosophy would do us a world of good in today’s complex society.
Schweitzer believed that our obligation to be ethical should never be abstract. He suggested that that we consciously decide what we believe to be right and good conduct—in his case, a reverence for all life—and that, rather than wandering through life robotically, we should truly live it by being active participants.
Underlying this was his belief that our principles should compel us to effect the changes in conduct that we know we should and to persuade others to make them, too, even if it meant sacrifice and self-discipline. In other words, we shouldn’t simply ponder our lives and observe others around us, but rather, we should take actions that will help make the world better for our having passed through it.
Schweitzer, although himself a scientist, thought that laypeople were far more important in the world than scientists. Laypeople, he argued, are more in touch with life than those who feel the compulsion to examine and dissect it bit by bit. So Schweitzer believed, as did Lin Yu Tang, the Chinese philosopher, that “to comprehend the organs of the horse is not to comprehend the horse itself.”
Put another way, to smell the flower and appreciate it is superior to plucking it and taking apart its petals. And to know a gentle cow’s personality is preferable to eating her.
Schweitzer, a vegetarian, believed that it is only possible to be truly ethical when we “obey the compunction to help all life … and shrink from injuring anything that lives.”
He looked out for others because he felt it his obligation.
Schweitzer’s philosophy is similar to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ belief that we must stand up, speak out and give of ourselves to stop unthinking and deliberate acts of cruelty to all those around us.
We need a boundless ethics that includes the animals also,” he said. It is important, he believed, to give sympathy based on how much someone else—animal or human—suffers, rather than on some arbitrary measure of value. A worm was no less valuable for being “lowly” and Schweitzer was not afraid to be thought sentimental for moving a stranded earthworm from the pavement into the grass.
Just imagine what our world could be—think of the suffering we could stop—if everyone, from the lowly to the most exalted, were valued and treated as though they mattered.
Ingrid Newkirk is president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.peta2.com. Her latest book is 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals (Warner 2006).
Print
Email
