PHL 337: Ethics

These 25 contributions discuss current problems in the areas of environmental ethics, deep ecology, ecofeminism, and political ecology. Topics include free-market and socialist environmentalism, sustainable development, social ecology, bioregionalism, ecotage, and ways for environmental ethicists

Mark Rowlands is the world's best known philosopher of animal rights. He starts by asking whether there is anything about humans that makes us psychologically or physiologically distinctive - so that there is a moral justification for treating animals in a different way to how we treat humans. He goes on to explore specific issues of eating animals, experimentation, pets, hunting, zoos, predation and engineering animals. He ends with a challenging argument of how an understanding of animal ethics should affect readers' choices.

Varner offers a powerful response to what he calls the "two dogmas of environmental ethics"--the assumptions that animal rights philosophies and anthropocentric views are each antithetical to sound environmental policy. "The book is a pleasure to read. The author is unduly influenced neither by radical nor conservative environmentalist camps. He has a mind of his own."--Environmental Ethics

This book, the first of its kind, surveys Islamic and Muslim attitudes toward animals, and human responsibilities towards them, through Islams's philosophy, literature, mysticism, and art. A must read for anyone interested in the debate on animal rights and responsible food production.

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. 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.

While it is generally accepted that animal welfare matters morally, it is less clear how to morally evaluate the ending of an animal's life. It seems to matter for the animal whether it experiences pain or pleasure, or enjoyment or suffering. But does it also matter for the animal whether itlives or dies? Is a longer life better for an animal than a shorter life? If so, under what conditions is this so, and why is this the case? Is it better for an animal to live rather than never to be born at all? The Ethics of Killing Animals addresses these value-theoretical questions about animal life, death and welfare. It also discusses whether and how answers to these questions are relevant for our moral duties towards animals. Is killing animals ever morally acceptable and, if so, under whatconditions? Do animals have moral rights, such as the right to life and should they be accorded legal rights? How should our moral duties towards animals inform our individual behavior and policy-making?