Animals are a part of Nature

I judge either of matters of fact or of relations. Morality never has any separate matter of fact that could be told to continue, to let foward, or push right away by reason by itself. Morality for myself must therefore obtain the perception of relations. But objects and animals can practically have the same relations to one another that humans can, though we don't draw the same moral rights from determining that objects or animals are in the same given will as we do when humans are in that same relation. We don't quite respect all animals as we would respect a human being, because they don't have the same character and rights as we do. Finding out this case of reason requires more than reason alone or by itself that it can be provided. Even if we could find a correct subject-matter for the moral rationalist, it would still be the case that, after determining that a matter of fact or a relation has contain, the understanding has no more room to operate, so the praise or blame that follows can't be the work of reason. Therefore, animals are objects to us. We use them for our sciences to figure out things in the world that we cant use on humans. Why not use an animal as an object? I have written a book called Treatise of Human Nature that explains more in details of my reason on animals. I basically say that animals are like humans, though we use animals as an object. Animals have like futures, they need food, water, shelter and other things that humans need. We must make a distinction between those actions of animals, which are of a vulgar nature, and seem to be on a level with their common capacities, which they sometimes discover for their own preservation, and the propagation of their species. A dog, that avoids fire and precipices, that follows strangers, and caresses his master, affords us an instance of the first kind. A bird, that chooses with such care and nicety the place and materials of her nest, and sits upon her eggs for a due time, and in a suitable season, with all the precaution that a chemist is capable of in the most delicate projection, furnishes us with a lively instance of the second. As to the former actions, I assert they proceed from a reasoning, that is not in itself different, nor founded on different principles, from that which appears in human nature. Animals are like us just that they are considered objects by nature. ---- David Hume