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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
Throughout the course of the Second World War, many millions of animals were enlisted to serve. Though they had no choice, yet they demonstrated loyalty, determination and bravery as they shared the burden of war with their human companions both on active service and on the Home Front. From the dogs trained to locate air-raid victims buried under rubble, to the mules that carried ammunition and supplies through the jungles of the Far East, each animal played a crucial role in the war effort. In fact, such was their contribution that those animals that showed exceptional gallantry or devotion to duty were recognised officially with the introduction of the Dickin Medal in 1943. This fascinating book draws from first-hand accounts and contemporary sources to reveal the wide-ranging contributions that animals made both on and off the battlefield.
Christine M. Korsgaard presents a compelling new view of humans' moral relationships to the other animals. She defends the claim that we are obligated to treat all sentient beings as what Kant called "ends-in-themselves". Drawing on a theory of the good derived from Aristotle, she offers an explanation of why animals are the sorts of beings for whom things can be good or bad. She then turns to Kant's argument for the value of humanity to show that rationality commits us to claiming the standing of ends-in-ourselves, in two senses. Kant argued that as autonomous beings, we claim to be ends-in-ourselves when we claim the standing to make laws for ourselves and each other. Korsgaard argues that as beings who have a good, we also claim to be ends-in-ourselves when we take the things that are good for us to be good absolutely and so worthy of pursuit. The first claim commits us to joining with other autonomous beings in relations of moral reciprocity. The second claim commits us to treating the good of every sentient creature as something of absolute importance. Korsgaard argues that human beings are not more important than the other animals, that our moral nature does not make us superior to the other animals, and that our unique capacities do not make us better off than the other animals. She criticizes the "marginal cases" argument and advances a new view of moral standing as attaching to the atemporal subjects of lives. She criticizes Kant's own view that our duties to animals are indirect, and offers a non-utilitarian account of the relation between pleasure and the good. She also addresses a number of directly practical questions: whether we have the right to eat animals, experiment on them, make them work for us and fight in our wars, and keep them as pets; and how to understand the wrong that we do when we cause a species to go extinct.
Abjective ecologies of British humans, animals, and other nonhumans in cultural forms of nineteenth-century literature, from Dracula to Bovril Meat Markets articulates the emergent 'nonhuman thought' developed across literatures of the long nineteenth century and inflecting recent critical theories of abject life and animality. It presents important connections between meat and popular serial press industries, the intersections of criminals and public readership, and the long history of bloody spectacle at London's Smithfield Market including public executions, criminal escapades, death and horror tales, and the fungible 'penny press' forms of mass consumption. Through analysis of subjection, address, and narration in canonical and penny literatures, this book reveals the mutual forces of concern and consumption that afflict objects of a weird cultural history of bloody London across the long nineteenth century. Players include butchers, Smithfield, Parliament, Dickens, Romantics, Sweeney Todd, cattle, and a strange, impossible London. Key Features Articulates the emergent 'nonhuman thought' developed across literatures of the long nineteenth century and inflecting recent critical theories of abject life and animality Shows the productive contradictions in social and animal concern as it produces anonymous, 'biopolitical' objects in literature, food culture, and London society Presents important connections between meat and popular serial press industries, the intersections of criminals and public readership, and the long history of bloody spectacle at London's Smithfield Market including public executions, criminal escapades, death and horror tales, and the fungible 'penny press' forms of mass consumption
Edmund Russell's much-anticipated new book examines interactions between greyhounds and their owners in England from 1200 to 1900 to make a compelling case that history is an evolutionary process. Challenging the popular notion that animal breeds remain uniform over time and space, Russell integrates history and biology to offer a fresh take on human-animal coevolution. Using greyhounds in England as a case study, Russell shows that greyhounds varied and changed just as much as their owners. Not only did they evolve in response to each other, but people and dogs both evolved in response to the forces of modernization, such as capitalism, democracy, and industry. History and evolution were not separate processes, each proceeding at its own rate according to its own rules, but instead were the same.
This book presents a radical and intuitive argument against the notion that intentional action, agency and autonomy are features belonging only to humans. Using evidence from research into the minds of non-human animals, it explores the ways in which animals can be understood as individuals who are aware of themselves, and the consequent basis of our moral obligations towards them. The first part of this book argues for a conception of agency in animals that admits to degrees among individuals and across species. It explores self-awareness and its various levels of complexity which depend on an animals' other mental capacities. The author offers an overview of some established theories in animal ethics including those of Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Bernard Rollin and Lori Gruen, and the ways these theories serve to extend moral consideration towards animals based on various capacities that both animals and humans have in common. The book concludes by challenging traditional Kantian notions of rationality and what it means to be an autonomous individual, and discussing the problems that still remain in the study of animal ethics.
The Sunday Times top ten bestseller 'Lost Dog is already one of my books of the year. Spicer writes like a dream...You will love it.' India Knight, Sunday Times 'Sharply observed and deeply funny, it's one of the best, most enjoyable books of 2019 so far' British Vogue What did Fleabag do next? One morning, you wake up and wonder what has happened to your life. Then you realise: you happened to yourself. Kate is a middle aged woman trying to steer some order into a life that is going off the rails. When she adopts a lurcher called Wolfy, the shabby rescue dog saves her from herself. But when the dog disappears, it is up to Kate to hit the streets of London and find him. Will she save him, as he has saved her - or will she lose everything? As she trudges endlessly calling his name in the hopeless hope she may find him, she runs into other people's landscapes and lives, finding allies amongst psychics, bloggers and mysterious midnight joggers. Trying to find her dog tests her relationship, and her sanity, to its limits - and gets her thinking about her life, and why things have turned out as they have for her. A brilliant, life-affirming memoir, Lost Dog is a book like no other about the myth of modern womanhood.
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Hope, as Emily Dickinson famously wrote, is the thing with feathers. Erik Anderson, on the other hand, regards our obsession with birds as too sentimental, too precious. Birds don't express hope. They express themselves. But this tension between the versions of nature that lodge in our minds and the realities that surround us is the central theme of Bird. This is no field guide. It's something far more unusual and idiosyncratic, balancing science with story, anatomy with metaphor, habitat with history. Anderson illuminates the dark underbelly of our bird fetish and offers a fresh, alternative vision of one of nature's most beloved objects. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
To what extent, and in what manner, do storytelling practices accomodate nonhuman subjects and their modalities of experience, and how can contemporary narrative study shed light on interspecies interactions and entanglements? In Narratology beyond the Human, David Herman addresses these questions through a cross-disciplinary approach to post-Darwinian narratives concerned with animals and human-animal relationships. Herman considers the enabling and constraining effects of different narrative media, examining a range of fictional and nonfictional texts disseminated in print, comics and graphic novels, and film. In focusing on techniques such as the use of animal narrators, alternation between human and nonhuman perspectives, the embedding of stories within stories, and others, the book explores how specific strategies for portraying nonhuman agents both emerge from and contributes to broader attitudes toward animal life. Herman argues that existing frameworks for narrative inquiry must be modified to take into account how stories are interwoven with cultural ontologies, or understandings of what sorts of beings populate the world and how they relate to humans. Showing how questions of narrative bear on ideas of species difference and assumptions about animal minds, Narratology beyond the Human underscores our inextricable interconnectedness with other forms of creatural life and suggests that stories can be used to resituate imaginaries of human action in a more-than-human world.
A prominent and respected philosopher of animal rights law and ethical theory, Gary L. Francione is known for his criticism of animal welfare laws and regulations, his abolitionist theory of animal rights, and his promotion of veganism and nonviolence as the baseline principles of the abolitionist movement. In this collection, Francione advances the most radical theory of animal rights to date. Unlike Peter Singer, Francione maintains that we cannot morally justify using animals under any circumstances, and unlike Tom Regan, Francione's theory applies to all sentient beings, not only to those who have more sophisticated cognitive abilities.
The animality of human beings is completely unknown. Being human means to be something other than an animal, to not be an animal. Felice Cimatti, with reference to the work of Gilles Deleuze, explores what human animality looks like. He shows that becoming animal means to stop thinking of humanity as the reference point of nature and the world. It means that our value as humans has the very same value as a cloud, a rock or a spider. Drawing on a wide range of texts - from philosophical ethology, to classical texts, to continental philosophy and literature - Cimatti creates a dialogue with Flaubert, Derrida, Temple Grandin, Heidegger as well as Malaparte and Landolfi - as part of this intriguing discussion about our humanity - and our unknown animality.
Sex with animals is one of the last taboos but, for a practice that is generally regarded as abhorrent, it is remarkable how many books, films, plays, paintings, and photographs depict the subject. So, what does loving animals mean? In this book the renowned historian Joanna Bourke explores the modern history of sex between humans and animals. Bourke looks at the changing meanings of "bestiality" and "zoophilia," assesses the psychiatric and sexual aspects, and she concludes by delineating an ethics of animal loving.
The most detailed and authoritative treatment of the current state of animal welfare law in Britain to date. This book provides a full analysis of the substantive law, considers its objectives, application and effectiveness, the background to the current debate and the arguments for and against further reform. It includes full coverage of key topics such as agricultural production, transportation, scientific procedures, entertainment, domestic pets, wildlife, hunting and enforcement. This book provides a dispassionate and objective analysis of the current state of animal welfare law in the United Kingdom. It explains the substantive law,
Companion Animal Ethics explores the important ethical questions and problems that arise as a result of humans keeping animals as companions. * The first comprehensive book dedicated to ethical and welfare concerns surrounding companion animals * Scholarly but still written in an accessible and engaging style * Considers the idea of animal companionship and why it should matter ethically * Explores problems associated with animals sharing human lifestyles and homes, such as obesity, behavior issues, selective breeding, over-treatment, abandonment, euthanasia and environmental impacts * Offers insights into practical ways of improving ethical standards relating to animal companions
To what extent can animals be regarded as part of the moral community? To what extent, if at all, do they have moral rights? Are we wrong to eat them or to hunt them? Is the use of animals for scientific research justified? And can the ideas behind animal liberation be squared with those of the environmental movement? It is Taylor's strong belief that, whatever our own views on these contentious issues may be, we benefit by exploring them more thoroughly, and by understanding and evaluating arguments of those who may disagree with us. He traces the background of these debates from Aristotle to Darwin, and he provides fair-minded commentaries on the positions of contemporary philosophers Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Nel Noddings, Mary Anne Warren, J. Baird Callicott, and numerous others, with ethical theories ranging from utilitarianism to eco-feminism. A precious edition of this book appeared under the title
An Account of one Woman's Courage, Caring, and Generosity in the Face of the Inhumane Brigitte Bardot-a global icon of French cinema-has used her fame to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Leaving the spotlight of stardom, she has dedicated her time and fortune to promoting the welfare of animals, both domestic and wild, around the world. Over the past forty years, Bardot has evolved from an international film icon of the glamorous sixties to an icon of that of a crusader for animal rights, forming her own foundation and meeting with leaders from around the world and lobbying for legislation to protect animals. In this poignant memoir, she uncovers the struggles of her decades-long battle-detailing the too few victories and the heartbreaking defeats-and revealing herself as never before seen through her reflections about nature, herself as a superstar, and the passion that has driven her away from glamour of her previous fame toward the humble calling of serving others.
Do animals have moral rights? If so what does this mean? What sorts of mental lives do animals have, and how should we understand their welfare? After addressing these questions, DeGrazia explores their implications in contexts such as food consumption, zoos, and research.
Ist der Tierschutz menschenfeindlich und ist dessen Gesetzgebung im Dritten Reich Missbrauch etwaiger Weimarer Entwurfe zur Judenverfolgung und Selbstverherrlichung? Untersucht wird demgegenuber die Geschichte von 360 Ziffer 13 des Reichsstrafgesetzbuches 1871 uber das Reichstierschutzgesetz 1933 samt dessen Nebengesetzen 1934-40 bis zu ihrer Auslegung und Umsetzung gar bis 1943/45. Dadurch erweist sich der Tierschutz als eine uralte Kulturnotwendigkeit und somit nicht erst als "Kind des Nationalsozialismus". Doch dessen volkserzieherische Bestrebung war vom Zustandekommen des Tierschutzrechts als neues Fachgebiet nicht wegzudenken.
This book examines C. S. Lewis's writings about animals, and the theological bases of his opposition to vivisection and other cruelties. It argues Genesis is central to many of these ethical musings and the book's organization reflects this. It treats in turn Lewis's creative approaches to the Garden of Eden, humanity's "dominion" over the earth, and the loss of paradise with all the catastrophic consequences for animals it presaged. The book closes looking at Lewis's vision of a more inclusive community. Though he left no comprehensive summary of his ideas, the Narnia adventures and science fiction trilogy, scattered poems and his popular theology inspire affection and sympathy for the nonhuman. This study challenges scholars to reassess Lewis as not only a literary critic and children's author but also an animal theologian of consequence, though there is much here for all fans of Mr. Bultitude and Reepicheep to explore.
Simone Weil once wrote that "the vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence," establishing a relationship between vulnerability, beauty, and existence transcending the separation of species. Her conception of a radical ethics and aesthetics could be characterized as a new poetics of species, forcing a rethinking of the body's significance, both human and animal. Exploring the "logic of flesh" and the use of the body to mark species identity, Anat Pick reimagines a poetics that begins with the vulnerability of bodies, not the omnipotence of thought. Pick proposes a "creaturely" approach based on the shared embodiedness of humans and animals and a postsecular perspective on human-animal relations. She turns to literature, film, and other cultural texts, challenging the familiar inventory of the human: consciousness, language, morality, and dignity. Reintroducing Weil's elaboration of such themes as witnessing, commemoration, and collective memory, Pick identifies the animal within all humans, emphasizing the corporeal and its issues of power and freedom. In her poetics of the creaturely, powerlessness is the point at which aesthetic and ethical thinking must begin.
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