Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231175142
- eISBN:
- 9780231540957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to ...
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How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal rights movements. Beating Hearts maintains that sentience, or the ability to have subjective experiences, grounds a being’s entitlement to moral concern. The authors argue that nearly all human exploitation of animals is unjustified. Early abortions do not contradict the sentience principle because they precede fetal sentience, and Beating Hearts explains why the mere potential for sentience does not create moral entitlements. Late abortions do raise serious moral questions, but forcing a woman to carry a child to term is problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. These ethical explorations lead to a wider discussion of the strategies deployed by the pro-life and animal rights movements. Should legal reforms precede or follow attitudinal changes? Do gory images win over or alienate supporters? Is violence ever principled? By probing the connections between debates about abortion and animal rights, Beating Hearts uses each highly contested set of questions to shed light on the other.Less
How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal rights movements. Beating Hearts maintains that sentience, or the ability to have subjective experiences, grounds a being’s entitlement to moral concern. The authors argue that nearly all human exploitation of animals is unjustified. Early abortions do not contradict the sentience principle because they precede fetal sentience, and Beating Hearts explains why the mere potential for sentience does not create moral entitlements. Late abortions do raise serious moral questions, but forcing a woman to carry a child to term is problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. These ethical explorations lead to a wider discussion of the strategies deployed by the pro-life and animal rights movements. Should legal reforms precede or follow attitudinal changes? Do gory images win over or alienate supporters? Is violence ever principled? By probing the connections between debates about abortion and animal rights, Beating Hearts uses each highly contested set of questions to shed light on the other.
Angus Nurse and Tanya Wyatt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529204346
- eISBN:
- 9781529204384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529204346.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This chapter examines issues around animal rights and wildlife rights exploring the notion of wildlife as belonging to ‘no-one’ or as belonging to ‘everyone’ in a manner that arguably should create a ...
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This chapter examines issues around animal rights and wildlife rights exploring the notion of wildlife as belonging to ‘no-one’ or as belonging to ‘everyone’ in a manner that arguably should create a form of rights. Animal rights debates often centre around the need to provide rights for recognized sentient species (chimpanzees, dolphins, apes) and this chapter critically considers these debates, arguing that our exploitation of wildlife amounts to an infringement of certain rights. The chapter also contrasts the greater level of protection and limited rights provided to companion animals with that provided to wildlife, and argues for a limited extension of rights to wildlife in the form of legal personhood that protects them from certain forms of exploitation. The chapter includes case studies of the recent US case that attempted to argue for legal personhood in respect of several chimpanzees and the Argentine case that granted legal personhood to the Orang-utan, Sandra.Less
This chapter examines issues around animal rights and wildlife rights exploring the notion of wildlife as belonging to ‘no-one’ or as belonging to ‘everyone’ in a manner that arguably should create a form of rights. Animal rights debates often centre around the need to provide rights for recognized sentient species (chimpanzees, dolphins, apes) and this chapter critically considers these debates, arguing that our exploitation of wildlife amounts to an infringement of certain rights. The chapter also contrasts the greater level of protection and limited rights provided to companion animals with that provided to wildlife, and argues for a limited extension of rights to wildlife in the form of legal personhood that protects them from certain forms of exploitation. The chapter includes case studies of the recent US case that attempted to argue for legal personhood in respect of several chimpanzees and the Argentine case that granted legal personhood to the Orang-utan, Sandra.
Nisha P R
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199496709
- eISBN:
- 9780190992088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199496709.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Social History
Wild animals have always been an indispensable part of circus around the world. This chapter traces their trajectory from the ‘wild’ to the ‘submissive’. It also discusses in detail the attitudes of ...
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Wild animals have always been an indispensable part of circus around the world. This chapter traces their trajectory from the ‘wild’ to the ‘submissive’. It also discusses in detail the attitudes of the colonial and post-colonial states towards animals in general and the changes over the period in relation to circus animals. This section examines such statist double standards focusing at the ban of wild animals in Indian circus by the environment ministry, which proved to be fatal to both circus people and the animals. This chapter also explores how the present ‘conservation’ ideas excludes and thus jeopardizes certain historical practices of animal taming, training, and performance.Less
Wild animals have always been an indispensable part of circus around the world. This chapter traces their trajectory from the ‘wild’ to the ‘submissive’. It also discusses in detail the attitudes of the colonial and post-colonial states towards animals in general and the changes over the period in relation to circus animals. This section examines such statist double standards focusing at the ban of wild animals in Indian circus by the environment ministry, which proved to be fatal to both circus people and the animals. This chapter also explores how the present ‘conservation’ ideas excludes and thus jeopardizes certain historical practices of animal taming, training, and performance.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s ...
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This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s perspective is resolutely informed by Continental Philosophy, which brings her to articulate a very strong critique of the pragmatist frame through which animal rights are often defended. Fontenay seeks to maintain the anthropological difference between man and animal that Singer and Cavalieri openly and brazenly, upon Fontenay’s account, ignore. While seeking to articulate the need for animal rights, Fontenay does not for as much encourage an abandon of what she calls the “human exception,” a defense of which she mounts in her chapter on “The Improper.” If the human exception must be maintained, Fontenay is attentive to the ways in which the account of the fragility common to animals and humans should lead to new ways of thinking about ethics and politics. Singer and Cavalieri are taken to task for ignoring the importance of this human exception (and, as a result, minimizing the crimes against humanity committed during the Shoah) and argues that animal rights should further develop their already extant legal status “between possessions and persons.” For Fontenay, it is not enough simply to investigate how philosophers, politicians or artists consider animals or the question of their rights nor is not enough for these different discourses simply to make mention of the “animal cause” to qualify them as allies in the struggle for animal rights.Less
This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s perspective is resolutely informed by Continental Philosophy, which brings her to articulate a very strong critique of the pragmatist frame through which animal rights are often defended. Fontenay seeks to maintain the anthropological difference between man and animal that Singer and Cavalieri openly and brazenly, upon Fontenay’s account, ignore. While seeking to articulate the need for animal rights, Fontenay does not for as much encourage an abandon of what she calls the “human exception,” a defense of which she mounts in her chapter on “The Improper.” If the human exception must be maintained, Fontenay is attentive to the ways in which the account of the fragility common to animals and humans should lead to new ways of thinking about ethics and politics. Singer and Cavalieri are taken to task for ignoring the importance of this human exception (and, as a result, minimizing the crimes against humanity committed during the Shoah) and argues that animal rights should further develop their already extant legal status “between possessions and persons.” For Fontenay, it is not enough simply to investigate how philosophers, politicians or artists consider animals or the question of their rights nor is not enough for these different discourses simply to make mention of the “animal cause” to qualify them as allies in the struggle for animal rights.
Rob White
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447300403
- eISBN:
- 9781447307853
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300403.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter considers matters pertaining to animal rights and animal welfare. More specifically, it deals with the concept of speciesism. This refers to the practice of discriminating against ...
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This chapter considers matters pertaining to animal rights and animal welfare. More specifically, it deals with the concept of speciesism. This refers to the practice of discriminating against nonhuman animals because they are perceived as inferior to the human species in much the same way that sexism and racism involve prejudice and discrimination against women and people of different colour. The chapter examines questions such as which species are threatened, Illegal wildlife trade and why some species are favoured by human communities and some are non-valued. How harm to animals is conceptualised thus very much depends upon the perspective one has on the ontological status of animals, the endangered species (their essential ‘nature’ or ‘being’), and how one views the relationship between humans and nonhuman animals.Less
This chapter considers matters pertaining to animal rights and animal welfare. More specifically, it deals with the concept of speciesism. This refers to the practice of discriminating against nonhuman animals because they are perceived as inferior to the human species in much the same way that sexism and racism involve prejudice and discrimination against women and people of different colour. The chapter examines questions such as which species are threatened, Illegal wildlife trade and why some species are favoured by human communities and some are non-valued. How harm to animals is conceptualised thus very much depends upon the perspective one has on the ontological status of animals, the endangered species (their essential ‘nature’ or ‘being’), and how one views the relationship between humans and nonhuman animals.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. ...
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Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. Fontenay argues that taking animals into philosophical account should not lead to neglect for what she calls the “human exception” but rather to a revalorization of its vital fragility.Less
Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. Fontenay argues that taking animals into philosophical account should not lead to neglect for what she calls the “human exception” but rather to a revalorization of its vital fragility.
Ted Geier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474424714
- eISBN:
- 9781474434522
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424714.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Covers the long history of the Smithfield animal market and legal reform in London. Shows the relationship of civic improvement tropes, including animal rights, to animal erasure in the form of new ...
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Covers the long history of the Smithfield animal market and legal reform in London. Shows the relationship of civic improvement tropes, including animal rights, to animal erasure in the form of new foodstuffs from distant meat production sites. The reduction of lives to commodities also informed public abasement of the butchers.Less
Covers the long history of the Smithfield animal market and legal reform in London. Shows the relationship of civic improvement tropes, including animal rights, to animal erasure in the form of new foodstuffs from distant meat production sites. The reduction of lives to commodities also informed public abasement of the butchers.
Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028738
- eISBN:
- 9780262327046
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028738.003.0004
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Difference democrats argue that the preoccupation of deliberative democracy with reasoned consensus makes it inimical to diversity and that achieving consensus is not possible in the face of deep ...
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Difference democrats argue that the preoccupation of deliberative democracy with reasoned consensus makes it inimical to diversity and that achieving consensus is not possible in the face of deep moral divisions and cultural pluralism. They also indict consensus for its tendency to push difference aside. The deliberative requirement of public reason is criticized as posing an unfair obstacle to the already-disadvantaged by depriving them of many effective non-deliberative forms of expression. And deliberative democracy is condemned for placing daunting obstacles in the path of accomplishing persuasion. But none of these criticisms hold up well under scrutiny. An analysis contrasting the environmental justice discourse with the animal rights discourse provides a cautionary tale for diversity-embracing environmentalists, difference democrats, and proponents of consensus-based governance.Less
Difference democrats argue that the preoccupation of deliberative democracy with reasoned consensus makes it inimical to diversity and that achieving consensus is not possible in the face of deep moral divisions and cultural pluralism. They also indict consensus for its tendency to push difference aside. The deliberative requirement of public reason is criticized as posing an unfair obstacle to the already-disadvantaged by depriving them of many effective non-deliberative forms of expression. And deliberative democracy is condemned for placing daunting obstacles in the path of accomplishing persuasion. But none of these criticisms hold up well under scrutiny. An analysis contrasting the environmental justice discourse with the animal rights discourse provides a cautionary tale for diversity-embracing environmentalists, difference democrats, and proponents of consensus-based governance.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some ...
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Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some of these instances, Derrida may over-generalize and thus elide certain anthropological specificities but praises his continued engagement with the animal question.Less
Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some of these instances, Derrida may over-generalize and thus elide certain anthropological specificities but praises his continued engagement with the animal question.
Angus Nurse and Tanya Wyatt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529204346
- eISBN:
- 9781529204384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529204346.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
Are there only crimes against humanity (Derrida, 2002)? Certainly not. And Wildlife Criminology aims to expose the range of crimes against non-humans that are overlooked, ignored, and hidden and ...
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Are there only crimes against humanity (Derrida, 2002)? Certainly not. And Wildlife Criminology aims to expose the range of crimes against non-humans that are overlooked, ignored, and hidden and argues for an expansion of the criminological gaze to include harms against wildlife. This chapter examines the future of wildlife criminology in relation to each of the chapter topics to demonstrate the wealth of research that is possible, which can challenge the exploitation and suffering that is a fundamental feature of many aspects of our societies. This chapter revisits wildlife as property, food (and other ‘products’), sport, reflectors of violence, and victims of human violence as well as their plight to achieve rights and justice. There is much more research and advocacy to be done to improve the lives of wildlife and the health of the planet, this chapter ends with thoughts on some of what can be done.Less
Are there only crimes against humanity (Derrida, 2002)? Certainly not. And Wildlife Criminology aims to expose the range of crimes against non-humans that are overlooked, ignored, and hidden and argues for an expansion of the criminological gaze to include harms against wildlife. This chapter examines the future of wildlife criminology in relation to each of the chapter topics to demonstrate the wealth of research that is possible, which can challenge the exploitation and suffering that is a fundamental feature of many aspects of our societies. This chapter revisits wildlife as property, food (and other ‘products’), sport, reflectors of violence, and victims of human violence as well as their plight to achieve rights and justice. There is much more research and advocacy to be done to improve the lives of wildlife and the health of the planet, this chapter ends with thoughts on some of what can be done.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights ...
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Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights and carelessly avoids the true ethical and political questions posed by genetic engineering.Less
Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights and carelessly avoids the true ethical and political questions posed by genetic engineering.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding ...
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Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding and slaughter. It provides a coda to the book by reframing the need for rights to be attributed to animals.Less
Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding and slaughter. It provides a coda to the book by reframing the need for rights to be attributed to animals.
Dominique Lestel
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231172974
- eISBN:
- 9780231541152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172974.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Lestel takes readers through a brief history of vegetarianism, including discussions of, among others, Pythagoras, the Manicheans, Richard Wagner, and the contemporary animal rights movement.
Lestel takes readers through a brief history of vegetarianism, including discussions of, among others, Pythagoras, the Manicheans, Richard Wagner, and the contemporary animal rights movement.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for ...
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Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for the necessity of maintaining its exceptionality.Less
Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for the necessity of maintaining its exceptionality.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of ...
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Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of financial feudalism” and a book on “the spirit of the beasts,” in the context of the pseudo-science of physiognomy.Less
Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of financial feudalism” and a book on “the spirit of the beasts,” in the context of the pseudo-science of physiognomy.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each ...
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Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each of these philosopher’s works a “tempered” version of the human exception.Less
Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each of these philosopher’s works a “tempered” version of the human exception.
