Overview
- Broadens understanding of the agency and rights of animals in relation to the Kantian ideal of individuality
- Enables readers to gain an overview of established theories, the extension of moral consideration towards animals and the challenge built against the meaning of autonomous individuality
- Deepens readers'comprehension of animal rights by use of examples from the work of established theorists in animal ethics
Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series (PMAES)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book presents a radical and intuitive argument against the notion that intentional action, agency and autonomy are features belonging only to humans. Using evidence from research into the minds of non-human animals, it explores the ways in which animals can be understood as individuals who are aware of themselves, and the consequent basis of our moral obligations towards them.
The first part of this book argues for a conception of agency in animals that admits to degrees among individuals and across species. It explores self-awareness and its various levels of complexity which depend on an animals’ other mental capacities. The author offers an overview of some established theories in animal ethics including those of Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Bernard Rollin and Lori Gruen, and the ways these theories serve to extend moral consideration towards animals based on various capacities that both animals and humans have in common. The book concludes by challenging traditional Kantian notions of rationality and what it means to be an autonomous individual, and discussing the problems that still remain in the study of animal ethics.Reviews
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Natalie Thomas teaches Philosophy, Ethics and Media Studies at the University of Guelph-Humber, in Toronto, Canada. She is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Animal Ethics and the Autonomous Animal Self
Authors: Natalie Thomas
Series Title: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58685-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-58684-1Published: 04 November 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-93466-9Published: 21 April 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-58685-8Published: 26 October 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-6672
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6680
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 177
Topics: Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Moral Philosophy