The condensed tannins (syn. polymeric proanthocyanidins) represent a major group of phenolic compounds in woody and some herbaceous plants (1-3). Their exceptional concentrations in the barks and heartwoods of a variety of tree species have resulted in their commercial extraction with the initial objective of applying the extracts in leather manufacture (4). Essentially all of their biological significance, e. g. the protection of plants from insects, diseases and herbivores, and most of the current, e. g. leather manufacture, and also most promising new uses, e. g. pharmaceuticals or wood preservatives, rest on their com plexation with other biopolymers like proteins and carbohydrates, or metal ions (5, 6). Increasing attention has thus been directed to understanding their conformation and conformational flexibility (7-20) in order to explain their biological activity and to provide a basis for further development of uses for these renewable phenolic compounds. Recent developments have also been initiated by the growing realization that the condensed tannins may additionally be credited for the profound health-beneficial properties of tea, fruit juices and red wine. This is mainly due to their in vitro radical scavenging (21) or antioxidant (22) biological properties, while the polymeric proanthocyanidins in red wine have been implicated in protection against cardiovascular disorders (23), e. g. the "French paradox" (24-26). Collectively these 'positive' characteristics of the polymeric proanthocyanidins have transformed "a relatively unattractive and therefore neglected area of study" (27) into, yet again, a fashionable research field."

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister" after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series inauguration in 1938. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists, and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

While moral perfectionists rank conscious beings according to their cognitive abilities, Paola Cavalieri launches a more inclusive defense of all forms of subjectivity. In concert with Peter Singer, J. M. Coetzee, Harlan B. Miller, and other leading animal studies scholars, she expands our understanding of the nonhuman in such a way that the derogatory category of "the animal" becomes meaningless. In so doing, she presents a nonhierachical approach to ethics that better respects the value of the conscious self.

Cavalieri opens with a dialogue between two imagined philosophers, laying out her challenge to moral perfectionism and tracing its influence on our attitudes toward the "unworthy." She then follows with a roundtable "multilogue" which takes on the role of reason in ethics and the boundaries of moral status. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winner for Literature and author of "The Lives of Animals," emphasizes the animality of human beings; Miller, a prominent analytic philosopher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, dismantles the rationalizations of human bias; Cary Wolfe, professor of English at Rice University, advocates an active exposure to other worlds and beings; and Matthew Calarco, author of "Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida," extends ethical consideration to entities that traditionally have little or no moral status, such as plants and ecosystems.

As Peter Singer writes in his foreword, the implications of this conversation extend far beyond the issue of the moral status of animals. They "get to the heart of some important differences about how we should do philosophy, and how philosophy can relate to our everyday life." From the divergences between analytical and continental approaches to the relevance of posthumanist thinking in contemporary ethics, the psychology of speciesism, and the practical consequences of an antiperfectionist stance, "The Death of the Animal" confronts issues that will concern anyone interested in a serious study of morality.