“Man Has No Advantage over the Beasts” (Ecclesiastes 3: 19) The Questionability of the Industrial Keeping of Animals

Abstract

In man’s endeavour to develop ethical norms for his relationship to the environment, we differentiate mainly between two tendencies:

• 1. The anthropocentric ecological ethic in which man is made the measure of all things and claims for himself the order to totally reign over the earth, and

• 2. the planetary ethic in which man regards himself as a member of creation who, thanks to his special position (e.g. the ability to make plans), is called upon to accept responsibility for the environment and for his fellow creatures.