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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society > General
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.
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.
'A little gem of a book' Brendan O'Connor Tom Inglis and his
Wheaten terrier Pepe have lived together for eighteen years:
countless days of walks and play and the odd bit of chaos. Now,
though, they are both getting old. To Love a Dog tells the story of
Tom's life with Pepe, and looks at the ancient connection between
humans and dogs. It explores why we take on the hassle of caring
for these pet animals who rely on us so completely, who can create
mess and upset in our lives, and who will probably die before us,
leaving us behind to grieve. This is a book for everyone who has
ever loved a dog.
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Turtle
(Paperback)
Louise M. Pryke
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R430
R391
Discovery Miles 3 910
Save R39 (9%)
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Ships in 9 - 17 working days
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As ancient creatures that once shared the Earth with dinosaurs,
turtles have played a crucial role in maintaining healthy
terrestrial and marine ecosystems for more than one hundred million
years. While it may not set records for speed on land, the turtle
is exceptional at distance swimming and deep diving, and some are
gifted with astounding longevity. In human thought, the animal's
ties to creativity, wisdom, and warfare stretch back to the world's
earliest written records. In Turtle, Louise M. Pryke celebrates the
slow and unassuming manner of this doughty creature, which provides
a living model of endurance and efficiency. In the increasingly
fast-paced world of the twenty-first century, it has never been
more important to consider the natural and cultural history of this
remarkable animal.
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Squid
(Paperback)
Martin Wallen
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R434
R396
Discovery Miles 3 960
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In myths and legends, squids are portrayed as fearsome
sea-monsters, lurking in the watery deeps waiting to devour humans.
Even as modern science has tried to turn those monsters of the deep
into unremarkable calamari, squids continue to dominate the
nightmares of the Western imagination. Taking inspiration from
early weird fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, modern writers such as
Jeff VanderMeer depict squids as the absolute Other of human
civilization, while non-Western poets such as Daren Kamali depict
squids as anything but threats. In Squid, Martin Wallen traces the
many different ways humans have thought about and pictured this
predatory mollusk: as guardians, harbingers of environmental
collapse, or an untapped resource to be exploited. No matter how we
have perceived them, squids have always gazed back at us,
unblinking, from the dark.
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Beaten by Beasts
(Paperback)
Charis Mather; Designed by Drue Rintoul
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R171
R155
Discovery Miles 1 550
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Some people have had amazing lives. Other people are not remembered
for their lives, though... They are remembered for their strange
deaths. Find out all about the poor people who were beaten by
beasts!
For the first time, fish became our companions and a corner of many
a Victorian parlour was given over to housing tiny fragments of
their world enclosed in glass. The experience of seeing a fish
swimming in a glass tank is one we take for granted now but in
Victorian England this was a remarkable sight. People had simply
not been able to see fish as they could with the invention of the
aquarium and everything that went with it. Goldfish in the Parlour
looks at the Victorian-era boom in the building of public
aquariums, as well as the craze for home aquariums and visiting the
seaside. Furthermore, this book considers how people see and meet
animals and, importantly, in what institutions and in what contexts
these encounters happen. John Simons uncovers the sweeping
consequences of the Victorian obsession with marine animals by
looking at naturalist Frank Bucklands Museum of Economic Fish
Culture and the role of fish in the Victorian economy, the
development of angling as a sport divided along class lines, the
seeding of Empire with British fish and comparisons with aquarium
building in Europe, USA and Australia. Goldfish in the Parlour
interrogates the craze that took over Victorian England when
aquariums introduced fish to parks, zoos and parlours.
Animals have featured in the lives and cultures of the people of
Merseyside since the dawn of time, and in so many ways. Beastly
Merseyside describes this, and tells wonderful stories about these
animals, and about the roles they have played. Horses have carried
us and our weaponry into battle for millennia, right up to the wars
of the twentieth century. They have ploughed our fields, carried
our goods, and pulled our carts, wagons, carriages, stagecoaches,
canal barges, buses, trams, and ambulances. We have been racing
horses on Merseyside for centuries. We have hunted animals for
food, from rabbits and ducks to those great leviathans of the sea,
the whales. Liverpool's whaling fleet was once one of the most
important in Britain. We have also hunted, and in some cases still
hunt, animals simply for 'sport'. This has included dog-fighting,
cockfighting, bear and bull baiting, as well as fox hunting, hare
coursing, and shooting. Animals have entertained us on the streets,
in the days of dancing bears and organ grinders' monkeys; in
circuses; and in the very many zoos we have had on Merseyside,
again over many centuries. Animals have also rescued us, provided
comfort to us, and helped us to see and hear. In Beastly
Merseyside, popular local historian Ken Pye tells tales about the
likes of Mickey the Chimp, Liverpool's own 'King Kong'; the
execution of Rajah the Elephant; Pongo the Man Monkey; the amazing
Hale Duck Decoy; the 'Lion in the Wheelbarrow'; the
nineteenth-century Knowsley Great Aviary and the modern safari
park; and why and how the Liver Bird became the emblem of
Liverpool. Full of well-researched, informative, and entertaining
facts, this book really shows just how vital a role animals of all
kinds have played, and continue to play, in our lives and
communities.
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