Abstract
The transformation of farm animals into industry-produced “biomachines” explains that the plight of animals worldwide has never been more serious than it is today. The description of the abuse of animals raised for food and the denunciation of the painful death they experience in slaughterhouses were the starting point of the animal movement in the 1970s. Promoting activism as well as academic studies, this movement, which first brought analytical ethics, and particularly utilitarianism, to bear on many animal welfare issues, goes hand in hand with the rejection of speciesism. Coined in 1971, this word suggests that membership in the Homo sapiens species is not a sufficient measure of moral worth. Animal ethics is an inquiry into the criteria that are decisive to grant a being moral consideration and evaluate the rightness or wrongness of some practices involving animals. Although Peter Singer and Tom Regan do not have the same arguments, they both provide an alternative to speciesism by referring to some value-laden labels that pertain to a cognitive ontology. This is why many ethicists coming from different countries are trying today to think through the animal question in order to overcome the dichotomies human/man, body/mind, and nature/culture we find in humanism.
References
Adams, C. J., & Donovan, J. (Eds.). (1995). Animals & women: Feminist theoretical explorations. Durham/London: Duke University Press.
Armstrong, S. J., & Botzler, R. G. (Eds.). (2008). The animal ethics reader. London/New York: Routledge.
Bentham, J. (1968). Principles of morals and legislation. New York: Prometheus Books.
Callicott, J. B. (1999). Genesis and John Muir. In J. B. Callicott (Ed.), Beyond the land ethic: Essays in the environmental philosophy. Albany: Suny Press.
Calorco, M. (2008). Zoographies: The question of the animal from Heidegger to Derrida. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cavalieri, P., & Singer, P. (Eds.). (1993). The great ape project: Equality beyond humanity. New York: St Martin’s Griffin.
Derrida, J. (1991). Eating well or the calculation of the subject: An interview with Jacques Derrida (trans: Connor, P., & Ronnell, A.). In E. Cadava, P. Connor, & J.-L. Nancy (Eds.), Who comes after the subject? (pp. 96–119). London: Routledge.
Derrida, J. (2008). The animal that therefore I am (trans: Wills, D.). New York: Fordham University Press
Derrida, J., & Roudinesco, E. (2004). Violence against animals (trans: Fort, J.). In For what tomorrow? (pp. 62–76). Standford: Standford University Press.
Kymlicka, W., & Donaldson, S. (2011). Zoopolis. A political theory of animal right. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pelluchon, C. (2011). Eléments pour une éthique de la vulnérabilité. Les hommes, les animaux, la nature. Paris: Le Cerf.
Pelluchon, C. (2015). Les Nourritures. Philosophie du corps politique. Paris: Le Seuil.
Regan, T. (1983). The case for animal rights. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Regan, T. (2004). Empty cages: Facing the challenge of animal rights. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Schiffer, S. P. (2012). The evolutionary basis for animal research. In J. R. Garrett (Ed.), The ethics of animal research: Exploring the controversy. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Singer, P. (Ed.). (2006). In defense of animals: The second wave. Oxford: Blackwell.
Singer, P. (2009). Animal liberation (4th ed.). New York/London: Harper-Collins.
Further Reading
Coetzee, J.-M. (1999). Elizabeth Costello. London: Vintage.
Francione, G. L. (1995). Animals, property, and the law. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
MacCance, D. (2013). Critical animal studies. An introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2006). Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge/London: Belknap.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Pelluchon, C. (2015). Animal Ethics. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_19-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_19-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities