The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics

About this book

Humans encounter and use animals in a stunning number of ways. The nature of these animals and the justifiability or unjustifiabilitly of human uses of them are the subject matter of The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics. Philosophers have long been intrigued by animal minds and vegetarianism, but only around the last quarter of the twentieth century did a significant philosophical literature begin to be developed on both the scientific study of animals and the ethics of human uses of animals. This literature had a primary focus on discussion of animal psychology, the moral status of animals, the nature and significance of species, and a number of practical problems.

This Oxford Handbook is designed to capture the nature of the questions as they stand today and to propose solutions to many of the major problems. Several chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics explore matters that have never previously been examined by philosophers. The authors of the thirty-five chapters come from a diverse set of philosophical interests in the History of Philosophy, the Philosophy of Mind, the Philosophy of Biology, the Philosophy of Cognitive Science, the Philosophy of Language, Ethical Theory, and Practical Ethics. They explore many theoretical issues about animal minds and an array of practical concerns about animal products, farm animals, hunting, circuses, zoos, the entertainment industry, safety-testing on animals, the status and moral significance of species, environmental ethics, the nature and significance of the minds of animals, and so on.

They also investigate what the future may be expected to bring in the way of new scientific developments and new moral problems. The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics of original essays is the most comprehensive single volume ever published on animal minds and the ethics of our use of animals.

Contents

Preface
Contributors
Introduction

PART I. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
1: Animals in Classical and Late Antique Philosophy
2: Animals and Ethics in the History of Modern Philosophy

PART II. TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY
3: Interacting with Animals: A Kantian Approach
4: Virtue Ethics and the Treatment of Animals
5: A Humean Account of the Status and Character of Animals
6: Rights Theory and Animal Rights
7: The Capabilities Approach and Animal Entitlements

PART III. MORAL STATUS AND PERSON THEORY
8: The Idea of Moral Standing
9: Animals, Fundamental Moral Standing, and Speciesism
10: Human Animals and Nonhuman Persons
11: Are Nonhuman Animals Persons?

PART IV. ANIMAL MINDS AND THEIR MORAL SIGNIFICANCE
12: Animal Mentality: Its Character, Extent, and Moral Significance
13: Mindreading and Moral Significance in Nonhuman Animals
14: Minimal Minds
15: Beyond Anthropomorphism: Attributing Psychological Properties to Animals
16: The Relationship between Cognitive Sophistication and Pain in Animals
17: Animals that Act for Moral Reasons
18: The Moral Life of Animals

PART V. SPECIES AND THE ENGINEERING OF SPECIES
19: On the Origin of Species Notions and Their Ethical Limitations
20: On the Nature of Species and the Moral Significance of their Extinction
21: Are All Species Equal?
22: Genetically Modified Animals: Should There Be Limits to Engineering the Animal Kingdom?
23: Human/Nonhuman Chimeras: Assessing the Issues

PART VI. PRACTICAL ETHICS
24: The Moral Relevance of the Distinction between Domesticated and Wild Animals
25: The Moral Significance of Animal Pain and Animal Death
26: The Ethics of Confining Animals: From Farms to Zoos to Human Homes
27: Keeping Pets
28: Animal Experimentation in Biomedical Research
29: The Application of Biotechnology to Animals in Agriculture
30: Environmental Ethics, Hunting, and the Place of Animals
31: Vegetarianism
32: The Use of Animals in Toxicological Research
33: What's Ethics Got to Do with It? The Roles of Government Regulation in Research-Animal Protection
34: Literary Works and Animal Ethics

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Tom L. Beauchamp is Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University and Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics. R. G. Frey (1941-2012) was Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University.