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Full-Text Articles in Comparative Psychology
The Question Of Animal Selves: Implications For Sociological Knowledge And Practice, Leslie Irvine
The Question Of Animal Selves: Implications For Sociological Knowledge And Practice, Leslie Irvine
Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism Collection
The question of whether sociologists should investigate the subjective experience of non-human others arises regularly in discussions of research on animals. Recent criticism of this research agenda as speculative and therefore unproductive is examined and found wanting. Ample evidence indicates that animals have the capacity to see themselves as objects, which meets sociological criteria for selfhood. Resistance to this possibility highlights the discipline’s entrenched anthropocentrism rather than lack of evidence. Sociological study of the moral status of animals, based on the presence of the self, is warranted because our treatment of animals is connected with numerous “mainstream” sociological issues. As …
Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff
Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff
Sentience Collection
This paper emphasizes the importance of broadening behavioral, ecological, and conservation science into a more integrative, interdisciplinary, socially responsible, compassionate, spiritual, and holistic endeavor.2,3 I will stress the significance of studies of animal behavior, especially ethological research concerned with animal emotions, in which individuals are named and recognized for their own personalities and temperaments, for helping us not only to learn about the nonhuman animal beings (hereafter animals) with whom we share Earth, but also for learning about who we are, our place in Nature, our humanness. We can be best understood in relationship to others. I will also develop …