Modern "humanitarianism" is a view gradually developed from the animal protection thought of classical anthropocentrism. Humanism advocates that human beings should be kind to animals, which reflects the progress of human morality. The history of human moral progress is the history of expanding the objects of moral concern. Humans expand the object of moral care from people to other creatures except people. The first object is animals. The issue of animal rights is a breakthrough for ecological ethics to break the traditional anthropocentrism moral system. This is because human beings have lived in a big environment with other animals since the day they were born. In daily life, people's lives are inseparable from the help of animals, and the shadow of animals flashes everywhere in the spiritual world of human beings. In addition, like people, most animals are conscious, an autonomous life, and can make choices. They can feel the joy and pain of life.

17 ~ 18 century, some thinkers in Europe and America put forward the theory of "kindness", advocating being kind to animals and thinking that animals should also enjoy "natural rights" like people, so they must also be recognized as the subject of rights.

164 1 year, a lawyer named Edward persuaded the Massachusetts (then a British colony) authorities to make a law: no one should treat livestock that have been used by people arbitrarily or cruelly, and it is people's responsibility to let them recuperate regularly.

1693, Locke, a famous British thinker, also questioned Descartes' thought in his book Reflections on Education. In his view, animals can feel pain, and it is morally wrong to hurt them unnecessarily. He expressed concern about the behavior of many children who tortured and cruelly treated birds, butterflies and other poor animals that fell into their hands, because this habit of torturing and killing other animals even made their hearts subtly cruel to people; Moreover, those who seek pleasure from the pain and death of lower animals can hardly develop kindness and love for their compatriots. He advocated that people should be kind not only to those useful animals they used to have, but also to squirrels, birds and insects-in fact, "all living animals."

In the18th century, John brukner expressed his concern about Britain's expansion in the New World of America. In his book Philosophical Thinking on Animals (1768), he wondered whether changing the American wilderness would disturb the "Web of Life" (brukner was the first person to use this word, and it was so important for later ecological science) and "God's whole plan". He has realized that in the process of reclaiming virgin land, many species will be seriously injured or even completely extinct. The decrease of complete God's creation worried the honorable brukner, but he avoided the moral evaluation of this kind of behavior.

Jeremy Bentham in Britain is the first utilitarian ethicist in modern western countries who consciously and explicitly applied moral care to animals. In his book "Principles of Morality and Legislation" written by 1789, he pointed out that the right or wrong of an action depends on the amount of happiness or pain it brings, and animals can feel the pain and joy. Therefore, when judging the right or wrong of human behavior, the pain and happiness of animals must also be taken into account. Bentham opposes the ability to reason or speak as the basis for treating people morally different from other life forms. The key to the problem should be whether they can feel the pain and happiness. Bentham believes that the most immoral behavior is the behavior that brings the greatest pain.

Compared with the abuse of lower life forms, the abuse of people with the most developed nervous system is a worse behavior, but the difference is only quantitative. A moral person and a moral society should maximize happiness and minimize pain, whether it is human suffering or animal suffering. The enlightened people of his time paid attention to the liberation of slaves, which inspired his confidence in moral progress. Bentham said that we have begun to care about the living conditions of slaves, and we have to take improving the living conditions of all animals that provide us with labor and meet our needs as the final stage of moral progress. For Bentham, animals that are beneficial to human beings (such as horses and chickens) occupy lower ethical status than slaves, but higher than other life forms. He predicted: "such an era will eventually come, when human nature will use its cloak to shelter all breathing animals from the wind and rain." Bentham's "coat" refers to moral status and legal protection.

/kloc-Henry Sert in the 0/9th century pushed the idea of * * * isomorphism in English extended ethics to the peak. Animal Rights and Social Progress, published by him in 1892, is a theoretical summary of the animal liberation movement, which has had an important influence on the later ecological ethics in Britain and America. He believes that if human beings have the right to live and be free, so do animals. Both of these rights come from natural rights, and for animals, they come from animal law. He feels that there is a lack of real non-human intimacy in the attitude of British and American people. The scope of moral isomorphism needs to be expanded. Therefore, he put forward a unique view: if we want to treat lower species (animals) fairly, we must abandon the outdated concept that there is a "huge gap" between them and human beings, and we must recognize the same humanitarian contract that connects all creatures in the cosmic family. He called on people to bring all living things into the scope of democracy, so as to establish a perfect democratic system, and people and animals should eventually be able to form the same government. Because not only human life is lovely and sacred, but other innocent and beautiful lives are equally sacred and lovely. The great country in the future will not only bless people, but also liberate people from cruel and unfair situations with the process of animal liberation. These two kinds of liberation are inextricably linked, and neither party's liberation can be fully realized in isolation. Celtic also attacked the "aggressive" industrial myth, because it destroyed thousands of animals in order to let "leisurely gentlemen and young women decorate themselves with borrowed feathers and fur", and condemned those hunting sports as "amateur slaughter". After ten years of struggle, the benevolent alliance he led successfully dissolved the royal deer hunting dog. Celtic's important contribution to ecological ethics is to combine the ancient theory of natural human rights with the liberalism of 18 ~ 19 century and directly apply it to the relationship between human beings and animals, thus opening up the ecological ethics of the contemporary school of animal liberation.