Mark Rowlands

Animal Rights

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

A fresh view of animals and what we owe them. Do animals have moral standing? Do they count, morally speaking? In Animal Rights, Mark Rowlands argues that they do and explores the implications of this idea. He identifies three different waves in animal rights writing. The first wave was defined by a traditional dispute between utilitarianism (represented by Peter Singer) and rights-based approaches (represented by Tom Regan) to ethics. The second wave was defined by an expansion in a conception of ethics, which saw utilitarian and rights-based approaches supplemented by other ethical traditions, including contractualism, virtue ethics, and care ethics. The third wave was defined by an expansion in our conception of animals, driven by exciting new developments in the field of comparative psychology. Each of these waves had ramifications for how we understand the moral status of animals, but, this book argues, and reinforces, the core idea that animals deserve moral respect. In earlier waves, discussions of animal ethics had been focused on the issue of animal suffering. But the third wave is defined by the idea that animals are far more than merely sufferers or enjoyers of experiences but are instead authors of their own lives: creatures capable of choosing how to live, shaped by a conception of their life and how they would like it to go. Rowlands writes that, no matter what moral theory you choose, the most plausible version of that theory entails that animals have moral standing and that our obligations to them are far more substantial than many of us care to acknowledge.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: MIT Press
• Seitenzahl: 224
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. Februar 2025
• Englisch
• Gewicht: 368g
• ISBN-13: 9780262549400
• ISBN-10: 0262549409
• Artikelnr.: 70732825

Autorenporträt

Mark Rowlands is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Miami. He is the author of more than twenty books translated into more than twenty languages. His memoir The Philosopher and the Wolf became an international best seller.

Inhaltsangabe

Animal Rights and Moral Theories Arguing for One's Species Utilitarianism and Animals: Peter Singer's Case for Animal Liberation Tom Regan: Animal Rights as Natural Rights Virtue Ethics and Animals Contractarianism and Animal Rights Animal Minds Index

Rezensionen

'Those concerned with animal ethics owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Rowlands. He has written what is without doubt the best defense of animal rights from a contractarian position, or perhaps from any position. Rowlands writes in an admirably clear and engaging manner, guaranteed to lure the reader into joining the spirited conversation.' - Susan J. Armstrong, Professor Emerita, Department of Philosophy, Humboldt State University, Arcata, Canada

'Philosophers, in particular, and those interested in animal rights issues, in general, should be grateful for the publication of this book for several reasons. First, familiar defenses of the animal rights position offered by Peter Singer and Tom Regan are examined anew, such that even those who are very familiar with these defenses see them in a new light. Second, the more recent debate in virtue ethics regarding treatment of animals (between Rosalind Hursthouse and Roger Scruton) is treated very insightfully. Third, Rowlands develops his own powerful version of a contractarian account of animal rights based on Rawlsian principles. And fourth, he also treats the animal rights issue in novel terms in light of recent debates in philosophy of mind and in relation to a fantastic thought experiment wherein brilliant aliens start farming and eating human beings because of their intellectual inferiority. This is not a book to be ignored!' - Daniel A. Dombrowski, Professor of Philosophy, Seattle University, USA