The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics

Description

This volume of 35 new essays explores ethical questions related to animal minds, vegetarianism, the human use of animals, and a broad range of other issues, proposing practical solutions to problems and in some cases offering philosophical insights on topics previously unexamined by philosophers.

• An in-depth, comprehensive treatment of the philosophical dimensions of the nature of animal minds and the ethics of human uses of animals.
• Presents a comprehensive picture of the science and ethics of human uses of animals together with an analysis of the nature of animal minds and the evolutionary history of animal life.
• The Introduction provides a concise, reader-friendly primer on the organization of the volume and the arguments entire contents of the book.

About the Author(s)

Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp, Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University, and the late R.G. Frey, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Bowling Green State University

Tom L. Beauchamp is Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University and Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics R. G. Frey (1941-2012) was Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Contributors
Introduction
PART I. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Animals in Classical and Late Antique Philosophy
2. Animals and Ethics in the History of Modern Philosophy
PART II. TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY
3. Interacting with Animals: A Kantian Approach
4. Virtue Ethics and the Treatment of Animals
5. A Humean Account of the Status and Character of Animals
6. Rights Theory and Animal Rights
7. The Capabilities Approach and Animal Entitlements
PART III. MORAL STATUS AND PERSON THEORY
8. The Idea of Moral Standing
9. Animals, Fundamental Moral Standing, and Speciesism
10. Human Animals and Nonhuman Persons
11. Are Nonhuman Animals Persons?
PART IV. ANIMAL MINDS AND THEIR MORAL SIGNIFICANCE
12. Animal Mentality: Its Character, Extent, and Moral Significance
13. Mindreading and Moral Significance in Nonhuman Animals
14. Minimal Minds
15. Beyond Anthropomorphism: Attributing Psychological Properties to Animals
16. The Relationship between Cognitive Sophistication and Pain in Animals
17. Animals that Act for Moral Reasons
18. The Moral Life of Animals
PART V. SPECIES AND THE ENGINEERING OF SPECIES
19. On the Origin of Species Notions and Their Ethical Limitations
20. On the Nature of Species and the Moral Significance of their Extinction
21. Are All Species Equal?
22. Genetically Modified Animals: Should There Be Limits to Engineering the Animal Kingdom?
23. Human/Nonhuman Chimeras: Assessing the Issues
PART VI. PRACTICAL ETHICS
24. The Moral Relevance of the Distinction between Domesticated and Wild Animals
25. The Moral Significance of Animal Pain and Animal Death
26. The Ethics of Confining Animals: From Farms to Zoos to Human Homes
27. Keeping Pets
28. Animal Experimentation in Biomedical Research
29. The Application of Biotechnology to Animals in Agriculture
30. Environmental Ethics, Hunting, and the Place of Animals
31. Vegetarianism
32. The Use of Animals in Toxicological Research
33. What's Ethics Got to Do with It? The Roles of Government Regulation in Research-Animal Protection
34. Literary Works and Animal Ethics
Index