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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Nozick’S Libertarian Critique Of Regan, Josh Milburn
Nozick’S Libertarian Critique Of Regan, Josh Milburn
Between the Species
Robert Nozick’s oft-quoted review of Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights levels a range of challenges to Regan’s philosophy. Many commentators have focussed on Nozick’s putative defence of speciesism, but this has led to them overlooking other aspects of the critique. In this paper, I draw attention to two. First is Nozick’s criticism of Regan’s political theory, which is best understood relative to Nozick’s libertarianism. Nozick’s challenge invites the possibility of a libertarian account of animal rights – which is not as oxymoronic as it may first sound. Second is Nozick’s criticism of Regan’s axiological theory, which is best …
Harming (Respectfully) Some To Benefit Others: Animal Rights And The Moral Imperative Of Trap-Neuter-Release Programs, Cheryl E. Abbate
Harming (Respectfully) Some To Benefit Others: Animal Rights And The Moral Imperative Of Trap-Neuter-Release Programs, Cheryl E. Abbate
Between the Species
Because spaying/neutering animals involves the harming of some animals in order to prevent harm to others, some ethicists, like David Boonin, argue that the philosophy of animal rights is committed to the view that spaying/neutering animals violates the respect principle and that Trap Neuter Release (TNR) programs are thus impermissible. In response, I demonstrate that the philosophy of animal rights holds that, under certain conditions, it is justified, and sometimes even obligatory, to cause harm to some animals (human or nonhuman) in order to prevent greater harm to others. As I will argue, causing lesser harm to some animals in …
Animal Rights And Incredulous Stares, Bob Fischer
Animal Rights And Incredulous Stares, Bob Fischer
Between the Species
I propose an analogy between the thesis that animals have rights and David Lewis's commitment to modal realism. I argue that just as Lewis received incredulous stares that seem to justify rejecting his metaphysical hypothesis, so the thesis that animals have rights can be reasonably rejected. I consider the prospect challenging the considered beliefs on which that rejection depends, and ultimately offer a pessimistic conclusion.
Chasing Secretariat's Consent: The Impossibility Of Permissible Animal Sports, James Rocha
Chasing Secretariat's Consent: The Impossibility Of Permissible Animal Sports, James Rocha
Between the Species
Tom Regan argued that animal sports cannot be morally permissible because they are cruel and the animals do not voluntarily participate. While Regan is correct about actual animal sports, we should ask whether substantially revised animal sports could be permissible. We can imagine significant changes to certain animal sports, such as horse racing, that would avoid cruelty and even allow the animals to make their own choices. Where alternative options are freely available, we can consider the horses to have preference autonomy in that they make their own decisions, and we could thereby claim that we have their hypothetical consent. …
We Are All Noah: Tom Regan's Olive Branch To Religious Animal Ethics, Matthew C. Halteman
We Are All Noah: Tom Regan's Olive Branch To Religious Animal Ethics, Matthew C. Halteman
Between the Species
For the past thirty years, Tom Regan has bucked the trend among secular animal rights philosophers and spoken patiently and persistently to the best angels of religious ethics in a stream of publications that enjoins religious scholars, clergy, and lay people alike to rediscover the resources within their traditions for articulating and living out an animal ethics that is more consistent with their professed values of love, mercy, and justice. My aim in this article is to showcase some of the wealth of insight offered in this important but under-utilized archive of Regan’s work to those of us, religious or …