Can Animals Be Moral

Author : Mark Rowlands
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199986711
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Can Animals Be Moral? written by Mark Rowlands and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From eye-witness accounts of elephants apparently mourning the death of family members to an experiment that showed that hungry rhesus monkeys would not take food if doing so gave another monkey an electric shock, there is much evidence of animals displaying what seem to be moral feelings. But despite such suggestive evidence, philosophers steadfastly deny that animals can act morally, and for reasons that virtually everyone has found convincing. In Can Animals be Moral?, philosopher Mark Rowlands examines the reasoning of philosophers and scientists on this question--ranging from Aristotle and Kant to Hume and Darwin--and reveals that their arguments fall far short of compelling. The basic argument against moral behavior in animals is that humans have capabilities that animals lack. We can reflect on our motivations, formulate abstract principles that allow that allow us to judge right from wrong. For an actor to be moral, he or she must be able scrutinize their motivations and actions. No animal can do these things--no animal is moral. Rowland naturally agrees that humans possess a moral consciousness that no animal can rival, but he argues that it is not necessary for an individual to have the ability to reflect on his or her motives to be moral. Animals can't do all that we can do, but they can act on the basis of some moral reasons--basic moral reasons involving concern for others. And when they do this, they are doing just what we do when we act on the basis of these reasons: They are acting morally.

Author : Dale Peterson
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608193462
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Moral Lives of Animals written by Dale Peterson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the moral behavior observed in animals and argues that human beings are not the only species to live by the principles of cooperation, kindness, and empathy.

Author : Mark Rowlands
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019024030X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Can Animals Be Moral? written by Mark Rowlands and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From eye-witness accounts of elephants apparently mourning the death of family members to an experiment that showed that hungry rhesus monkeys would not take food if doing so gave another monkey an electric shock, there is much evidence of animals displaying what seem to be moral feelings. But despite such suggestive evidence, philosophers steadfastly deny that animals can act morally, and for reasons that virtually everyone has found convincing. In Can Animals be Moral?, philosopher Mark Rowlands examines the reasoning of philosophers and scientists on this question--ranging from Aristotle and Kant to Hume and Darwin--and reveals that their arguments fall far short of compelling. The basic argument against moral behavior in animals is that humans have capabilities that animals lack. We can reflect on our motivations, formulate abstract principles that allow that allow us to judge right from wrong. For an actor to be moral, he or she must be able scrutinize their motivations and actions. No animal can do these things--no animal is moral. Rowland naturally agrees that humans possess a moral consciousness that no animal can rival, but he argues that it is not necessary for an individual to have the ability to reflect on his or her motives to be moral. Animals can't do all that we can do, but they can act on the basis of some moral reasons--basic moral reasons involving concern for others. And when they do this, they are doing just what we do when we act on the basis of these reasons: They are acting morally.

Author : Mylan Engel
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498531911
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Moral Rights of Animals written by Mylan Engel and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-03-16 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Mylan Engel Jr. and Gary Lynn Comstock, this book employs different ethical lenses, including classical deontology, libertarianism, commonsense morality, virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and the capabilities approach, to explore the philosophical basis for the strong animal rights view, which holds that animals have moral rights equal in strength to the rights of humans, while also addressing what are undoubtedly the most serious challenges to the strong animal rights stance, including the challenges posed by rights nihilism, the “kind” argument against animal rights, the problem of predation, and the comparative value of lives. In addition, contributors explore the practical import of animal rights both from a social policy standpoint and from the standpoint of personal ethical decisions concerning what to eat and whether to hunt animals. Unlike other volumes on animal rights, which focus primarily on the legal rights of animals, and unlike other anthologies on animal ethics, which tend to cover a wide variety of topics but only devote a few articles to each topic, this volume focuses exclusively on the question of whether animals have moral rights and the practical import of such rights. The Moral Rights of Animals will be an indispensable resource for scholars, teachers, and students in the fields of animal ethics, applied ethics, ethical theory, and human-animal studies, as well as animal rights advocates and policy makers interested in improving the treatment of animals.

Author : Marc Bekoff
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226041662
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wild Justice written by Marc Bekoff and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male? Or a rat who refused to push a lever for food when he saw that doing so caused another rat to be shocked? Aren’t these clear signs that animals have recognizable emotions and moral intelligence? With Wild Justice Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce unequivocally answer yes. Marrying years of behavioral and cognitive research with compelling and moving anecdotes, Bekoff and Pierce reveal that animals exhibit a broad repertoire of moral behaviors, including fairness, empathy, trust, and reciprocity. Underlying these behaviors is a complex and nuanced range of emotions, backed by a high degree of intelligence and surprising behavioral flexibility. Animals, in short, are incredibly adept social beings, relying on rules of conduct to navigate intricate social networks that are essential to their survival. Ultimately, Bekoff and Pierce draw the astonishing conclusion that there is no moral gap between humans and other species: morality is an evolved trait that we unquestionably share with other social mammals. Sure to be controversial, Wild Justice offers not just cutting-edge science, but a provocative call to rethink our relationship with—and our responsibilities toward—our fellow animals.

Author : Richard Sorabji
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 150171788X
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Animal Minds and Human Morals written by Richard Sorabji and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "They don't have syntax, so we can eat them." According to Richard Sorabji, this conclusion attributed to the Stoic philosophers was based on Aristotle's argument that animals lack reason. In his fascinating, deeply learned book, Sorabji traces the roots of our thinking about animals back to Aristotelian and Stoic beliefs. Charting a recurrent theme in ancient philosophy of mind, he shows that today's controversies about animal rights represent only the most recent chapter in millennia-old debates. Sorabji surveys a vast range of Greek philosophical texts and considers how classical discussions of animals' capacities intersect with central questions, not only in ethics but in the definition of human rationality as well: the nature of concepts; how perceptions differ from beliefs; how memory, intention, and emotion relate to reason; and to what extent speech, skills, and inference can serve as proofs of reason. Focusing on the significance of ritual sacrifice and the eating of meat, he explores religious contexts of the treatment of animals in ancient Greece and in medieval Western Christendom. He also looks closely at the contemporary defenses of animal rights offered by Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and Mary Midgley. Animal Minds and Human Morals sheds new light on traditional arguments surrounding the status of animals while pointing beyond them to current moral dilemmas. It will be crucial reading for scholars and students in the fields of ancient philosophy, ethics, history of philosophy, classics, and medieval studies, and for everyone seriously concerned about our relationship with other species. A Townsend Lecture Book

Author : T. J. Kasperbauer
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190695811
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Subhuman written by T. J. Kasperbauer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we think about animals? How do we decide what they deserve and how we ought to treat them? 'Subhuman' takes an interdisciplinary approach to these questions, drawing from research in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, law, history, sociology, economics, and anthropology. 'Subhuman' argues that our attitudes to nonhuman animals, both positive and negative, largely arise from our need to compare ourselves to them.

Author : Stephen R L Clark
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134779283
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Animals and Their Moral Standing written by Stephen R L Clark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-06-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty years ago, people thought only cranks or sentimentalists could be seriously concerned about the treatment of non-human animals. However, since then philosophers, scientists and welfarists have raised public awareness of the issue; and they have begun to lay the foundations for an enormous change in human practice. This book is a record of the development of 'animal rights' through the eyes of one highly-respected and well-known thinker. This book brings together for the first time Stephen R.L. Clark's major essays in one volume. Written with characteristic clarity and persuasion, Animals and Their Moral Standing will be essential reading for both philosophers and scientists, as well as the general reader concerned by the debates over animal rights and treatment.

Author : Robert Wright
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307772748
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Moral Animal written by Robert Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-11-03 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most provocative science books ever published—"a feast of great thinking and writing about the most profound issues there are" (The New York Times Book Review). "Fiercely intelligent, beautifully written and engrossingly original." —The New York Times Book Review Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animaled one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics—as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies. Illustrations.

Author : Mark H Bernstein
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137315253
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Moral Equality of Humans and Animals written by Mark H Bernstein and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Received opinion has it that humans are morally superior to non-human animals; human interests matter more than the like interests of animals and the value of human lives is alleged to be greater than the value of nonhuman animal lives. Since this belief causes mayhem and murder, its de-mythologizing requires urgent attention.