While contemporary care ethics focuses on utilizing relational approach to study the relationship between humans and animals,Donaldson and Kymlicka take this study a step further by applying the citizenship theory to discuss the responsibilities and duties of humans to nonhuman animals by distinguishing between different categories of the relationships between humans and nonhuman animals.However,this theory has been refuted because it fails to respond effectively to a range of questions about whether non-human animals can be civilized.Beginning from the relational approach,relying on the empathy theory instead of the citizenship theory,applying different degrees of human empathy to family members,friends,and strangers,and then using these three types of relationships as analogies to domesticated,marginal,and wild animals,this paper points out that different degrees of empathic care correspond to different degrees of responsibility and obligation,which overcomes the shortcomings of the citizenship theory and provides a new approach to the study of the relationships between humans and non-human animals under the relational approach.
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