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133The Moral Value of AnimalsThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 3 219-225. 2007.Altruism has often been thought to be the reason we treat animals with a certain moral respect. Animals are not moral agents who could reciprocally honour our well being, and because of this duties toward them are considered to be based on other-directed motivations. Altruism is a vague notion, and in the context of animals can be divided into at least three different alternatives. The first one equates altruism with benevolence or "kindness"; the second one argues altruism is based on recognisi…Read more
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260Personhood and AnimalsEnvironmental Ethics 30 (2): 175-193. 2008.A common Western assumption is that animals cannot be persons. Even in animal ethics, the concept of personhood is often avoided. At the same time, many in cognitive ethology argue that animals do have minds, and that animal ethics presents convincing arguments supporting the individual value of animals. Although “animal personhood” may seem to be an absurd notion, more attention needs to placed on the reasons why animals can or cannot be included in the category of persons. Of three different a…Read more
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305Animal ethics and interest conflictsEthics and the Environment 10 (1): 19-48. 2005.: Animal ethics has presented convincing arguments for the individual value of animals. Animals are not only valuable instrumentally or indirectly, but in themselves. Less has been written about interest conflicts between humans and other animals, and the use of animals in practice. The motive of this paper is to analyze different approaches to interest conflicts. It concentrates on six models, which are the rights model, the interest model, the mental complexity model, the special relations mod…Read more
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Animal Rights Activism, Marginalization, and ViolenceIn Jonathan Lynch & Gary Wheeler (eds.), Cultures of Violence, Inter-disciplinary Press. 2004.
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139Animal Suffering: Philosophy and CulturePalgrave-Macmillan. 2012.Animal Suffering: Philosophy and Culture explores the multifaceted moral meanings allocated to non-human suffering in contemporary Western culture.
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47The Moral Value of Animals: Three Versions Based on AltruismEssays in Philosophy 5 (2): 1. 2004.As it comes to animal ethics, broad versions of contractualism are often used as a reason for excluding animals from the category of those with moral value in the individualistic sense. Ideas of “reciprocity” and “moral agency” are invoked to show that only those capable of understanding and respecting the value of others may have value themselves. Because of this, possible duties toward animals are often made dependent upon altruism: to pay regard to animals is to act in an other-regarding mann…Read more
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4The Moral Value of Animals: Three Altruistic VersionsThe Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 3 219-225. 2007.Altruism has often been thought to be the reason we treat animals with a certain moral respect. Animals are not moral agents who could reciprocally honour our well being, and because of this duties toward them are considered to be based on other-directed motivations. Altruism is a vague notion, and in the context of animals can be divided into at least three different alternatives. The first one equates altruism with benevolence or "kindness"; the second one argues altruism is based on recognisi…Read more
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61Philosophy and Animal Studies: Calarco, Castricano, and DiamondSociety and Animals 17 (3): 279-286. 2009.Recently, animal studies has started to gain popularity. This interdisciplinary field investigates the human- animal relationship from different perspectives, including philosophy, cultural studies, and biology. In 2008, at least three books explored themes related to animal studies : Matthew Calarco, Zoographies: The Question of the Animal ; Jodey Castricano, Animal Subjects: An Ethics Reader in a Posthuman World; and Cora Diamond, Cary Wolfe, et al. Philosophy and Animal Life. Each volume appr…Read more
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160Affective empathy as core moral agency: psychopathy, autism and reason revisitedPhilosophical Explorations 17 (1): 76-92. 2014.Empathy has become a common point of debate in moral psychology. Recent developments in psychiatry, neurosciences and social psychology have led to the revival of sentimentalism, and the ‘empathy thesis’ has suggested that affective empathy, in particular, is a necessary criterion of moral agency. The case of psychopaths – individuals incapable of affective empathy and moral agency, yet capable of rationality – has been utilised in support of this case. Critics, however, have been vocal. They ha…Read more
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8Coetzee and alternative animal ethicsIn Peter Singer & Anton Leist (eds.), J.M. Coetzee and Ethics, Columbia University Press. 2010.Animal ethics has become a valuable part of philosophy. The main elements include criticism of anthropocentric assumptions and emphasis on experientialism. The analytic approach, which has applied standard moral theories to other animals, has been accompanied by the postmodern approach, which emphasizes matters such as plurality and contextuality. This is where J. M. Coetzee becomes relevant. His novels present ethical views related to nonhuman animals, constantly underpinned by the issue of how…Read more
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142Skepticism, Empathy, and Animal SufferingJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 10 (4): 457-467. 2013.The suffering of nonhuman animals has become a noted factor in deciding public policy and legislative change. Yet, despite this growing concern, skepticism toward such suffering is still surprisingly common. This paper analyzes the merits of the skeptical approach, both in its moderate and extreme forms. In the first part it is claimed that the type of criterion for verification concerning the mental states of other animals posed by skepticism is overly (and, in the case of extreme skepticism, i…Read more
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57Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and Animal PhilosophyEnvironmental Philosophy 10 (2): 75-96. 2013.The aim of this paper is to investigate key works on empathy and intersubjectivity and to compare how they relate to non-human animals. It will be suggested that intersubjectivity forms a powerful objection to skepticism concerning the minds of other animals and lays the grounds for normatively loaded empathic responses. It will also be argued that the core of intersubjectivity takes place outside of propositional language, thus defying the linguocentric stance often adopted in relation to other…Read more
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37The Politics and Ethics of Animal ExperimentationInternational Journal of Biotechnology 7 (4): 234-249. 2005.
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150Varieties of Empathy and Moral AgencyTopoi 33 (1): 1-11. 2014.Contemporary literature includes a wide variety of definitions of empathy. At the same time, the revival of sentimentalism has proposed that empathy serves as a necessary criterion of moral agency. The paper explores four common definitions in order to map out which of them best serves such agency. Historical figures are used as the backdrop against which contemporary literature is analysed. David Hume’s philosophy is linked to contemporary notions of affective and cognitive empathy, Adam Smith’…Read more
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71Animal Ethics and Philosophy: Questioning the Orthodoxy (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield International. 2014.Bringing together new theory and critical perspectives on a broad range of topics in animal ethics, this book examines the implications of recent developments in the various fields that bear upon animal ethics. Showcasing a new generation of thinkers, it exposes some important shortcomings in existing animal rights theory
Areas of Interest
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |