Main description:

Humans encounter and use animals in a stunning number of ways. The nature of these animals and the justifiability or unjustifiabilitly of human uses of them are the subject matter of this volume.

Philosophers have long been intrigued by animal minds and vegetarianism, but only around the last quarter of the twentieth century did a significant philosophical literature begin to be developed on both the scientific study of animals and the ethics of human uses of animals. This literature had a primary focus on discussion of animal psychology, the moral status of animals, the nature and significance of species, and a number of practical problems. This Oxford Handbook is designed to capture
the nature of the questions as they stand today and to propose solutions to many of the major problems. Several chapters in this volume explore matters that have never previously been examined by philosophers.

The authors of the thirty-five chapters come from a diverse set of philosophical interests in the History of Philosophy, the Philosophy of Mind, the Philosophy of Biology, the Philosophy of Cognitive Science, the Philosophy of Language, Ethical Theory, and Practical Ethics. They explore many theoretical issues about animal minds and an array of practical concerns about animal products, farm animals, hunting, circuses, zoos, the entertainment industry, safety-testing on animals, the status and
moral significance of species, environmental ethics, the nature and significance of the minds of animals, and so on. They also investigate what the future may be expected to bring in the way of new scientific developments and new moral problems.

This book of original essays is the most comprehensive single volume ever published on animal minds and the ethics of our use of animals.

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