Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Human Identity, Animal Identity, And Reflective Endorsement, Rachel D. Robison-Greene

Between the Species

In this paper, I will argue that philosophers have overestimated the value of reflective endorsement. Introspection does not, as many philosophers have supposed, shine a searchlight on a person’s authentic identity. Our “selves” are not as transparent to us as we would like to think. In fact, much of the work done in an introspective mood is confabulation or rationalization rather than genuine self-discovery. I will argue that if this is the case, the outputs of the reflective endorsement process are not inherently normative in the way that thinkers like Harry Frankfurt and Christine Korsgaard have suggested.

If this is …

The Gods Have Taken Thought For Them: Syncretic Animal Symbolism In Medieval European Magic, Solange Nicole Kiehlbauch

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates syncretic animal symbolism within medieval European occult systems. The major question that this work seeks to answer is: what does the ubiquity and importance of magical animals and animal magic reveal about overarching medieval perceptions of the world? In response, I utilize the emerging subfield of Animal History as a theoretical framework to draw attention to an understudied yet highly relevant aspect of occult theory and practice. This work argues that medieval Europeans lived in a fundamentally “enchanted” world compared to our modern age, where the permeable boundaries between physical and spiritual planes imbued nature and its …

Review Of Engel's And Comstock's The Moral Rights Of Animals, Mark Bernstein

Between the Species

A brief review of Engel's and Comstock's The Moral Rights of Animals

Singer, Wittgenstein, And Morally Motivating Examples, Ramona Ilea

Between the Species

Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation played a pivotal role in the animal rights movement and the foundation of modern animal ethics. Using an analysis inspired by Wittgenstein’s remarks on ethics, I will analyze the way in which Singer’s book is structured in order to understand why it succeeds in providing people with the moral motivation to change the way they live. I will argue that the success of Animal Liberation is in large part due to the detailed, carefully chosen, emotionally rich examples and the unusual way in which these examples are juxtaposed, structured, and presented. Understanding how examples can have …

Animals And African Ethics, Luis Cordeiro-Rodrigues

Between the Species

This article is a book review of the book Animals and African Ethics by Kai Horsthemke. I argue this is a brilliant book that gives a clear overview of how Africans see animals. However, I also contend that Horsthemke could have had a more charitable approach to African ideas and explore how an African theory of animal rights can be built upon this.

Animals And Causal Impotence: A Deontological View, Blake Hereth

Between the Species

In animal ethics, some ethicists such as Peter Singer argue that we ought not to purchase animal products because doing so causally contributes to unnecessary suffering. Others, such as Russ Shafer-Landau, counter that where such unnecessary suffering is not causally dependent on one’s causal contributions, there is no duty to refrain from purchasing animal products, even if the process by which those products are produced is morally abhorrent. I argue that there are at least two plausible principles which ground the wrongness of purchasing animal products produced by morally abhorrent means. First, respect for the wishes and dignity of animals …

Animal Experimentation As A Form Of Rescue, Alexander Zambrano Mr.

Between the Species

In this paper I explore a new approach to the ethics of animal experimentation by conceiving of it as a form of rescue. The notion of rescue, I suggest, involves some moral agent(s) performing an action or series of actions, whose end is to prevent or alleviate serious harm to another party, harm that otherwise would have occurred or would have continued to occur, had that moral agent not intervened. Animal experiments that are utilized as a means to alleviate human illnesses mirror the structure of rescue cases and this means that we can and should apply principles of rescue …

Review Of Science And Ethics, Gregory L. Bock

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

On The Respectful Use Of Animals, Jon Garthoff

Between the Species

In his essay “The Integration of the Ethic of the Respectful Use of Animals into the Law”, David Favre begins to articulate a new framework for understanding the legal status of nonhuman animals. The present essay supports the broad contours of Favre’s framework, but raises challenges for some of the framework’s elements. The first half questions Favre’s claim that possession of DNA and the capacity for life underlie the need for a more robust conception of animal legal standing. The second half questions Favre’s prior proposal that animals be deemed persons under law and questions his pragmatic suggestion that judges …

Review Of Gary L. Francione's Animals As Persons, Tony Milligan

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

Comparing Suffering Across Species, John Nolt

Between the Species

Moral life often presents us with trade-offs between the sufferings of some individuals and the sufferings of others. Researchers may need to consider, for example, whether the suffering imposed on animals by a certain line of medical experimentation justifies the relief that the resulting discoveries may bring to (human or non-human) others. Often in such cases, the suffering of some individuals is incomparable with—that is neither greater than nor less than nor equal to—the suffering of others. While this complicates moral decision-making across species, it does not undermine it.

Utilitarianism And Replaceability Or Are Animals Expendable?, Stefan Sencerz

Between the Species

In her very interesting paper, “Peter Singer on Expendability,” L. A. Kemmerer re-examines Peter Singer’s utilitarian argument implying that some being are replaceable and the implications of this argument for the issue of treating animals. I attempt to defend Singer, and more generally utilitarianism (including the principle of replaceability), against these objections. I argue that, given a utilitarian outlook, some animals are indeed replaceable. But I also argue that few animals are replaceable in practice.