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Animals, Language and Ethics

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Animal Ethics and the Nonconformist Conscience

Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series ((PMAES))

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Abstract

Changes in the way we talk about animals can narrow or expand ethical debates about them. During the twentieth century, a consensus narrative emerged that a more humanitarian way of talking about animals had to await the demise of Christian ‘dominion thought’, the idea that God gave humans mastery over animals, to use as we please. The claim is that a more modest and humane view of humanity’s place in the universe could only emerge with the collapse of the Christian vision. This chapter explores this narrative, introduces motifs which will subsequently recur and suggests that the growth of more compassionate attitudes towards animals in modernity is more complex than the consensus narrative suggests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Oxford, UK

    Philip J. Sampson

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  1. Philip J. Sampson
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Correspondence to Philip J. Sampson .

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Sampson, P.J. (2018). Animals, Language and Ethics. In: Animal Ethics and the Nonconformist Conscience. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96406-5_2

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