Language, Ethics and Animal Life Wittgenstein and Beyond

About this book

A number of factors-new research into human and animal consciousness, a heightened awareness of the methods and consequences of intensive farming, and modern concerns about animal welfare and ecology-have made our relationship to animals an area of burning interest in contemporary philosophy. Utilizing methods inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein, the contributors to Language, Ethics and Animal Life explore this area in a variety of ways.

Topics discussed include:
- scientific vs. non-scientific ways of describing human and animal behaviour
- the ethics of eating particular animal species
- human nature, emotions, and instinctive reactions
- responses of wonder towards the natural world
- the moral relevance of literature
- the concept of dignity
- the question of whether non-human animals can use language

Language, Ethics and Animal Life will be of great value to anyone interested in philosophical and interdisciplinary issues concerning language, ethics and humanity's relation to animals and the natural world.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors

Introduction
Niklas Forsberg

1. Humanizing Nonhumans: Ape Language Research as Critique of Metaphysics
Pär Segerdahl

2. Ethics and Language: What We Owe to Speakers
David Cockburn

3. The Difficulty of Language: Wittgenstein on Animals and Humans
Nancy E. Baker

4. Rape among the Panorpidae, Spouse Abuse among the Mantis Religiosa, and Other 'Reproductive Strategies' in the Animal and Human World
Olli Lagerspetz

5. Three Perspectives on Altruism
Ylva Gustafsson

6. Talking about Emotion
Camilla Kronqvist

7. Man as a Moral Animal: Moral Language-Games, Certainty, and the Emotions
Julia Hermann

8. Living with Animals, Living as an Animal
Anne Le Goff

9. What's Wrong with a Bite of Dog?
Rami Gudovitch

10. Second Nature and Animal Life
Stefano Di Brisco

11. Wittgenstein, Wonder and Attention to Animals
Mikel Burley

12. Honour, Dignity and the Realm of Meaning
Nora Hämäläinen

13. W. G. Sebald and the Ethics of Narrative
Alice Crary

Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Niklas Forsberg is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Uppsala University, Sweden. Mikel Burley is Lecturer in Religion and Philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK. Nora Hämäläinen is post-doctoral researcher and temporary lecturer in philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and former editor-in-chief of the Helsinki-based cultural weekly Ny Tid.