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8.8: Recommended Further Reading-

  • Page ID
    31102
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    Overviews of Animals & Ethics

    1. Susan Armstrong & Richard Botzler, eds. The Animal Ethics Reader, 2nd Ed. (Routledge, 2003, 2008) is the only comprehensive anthology of ethics & animals writings currently available. It is less than ideal, however, because the pro-animal theoretical selections are perhaps not ideal (e.g., the selections from Singer and Regan are not the best available; the selections from other pro-animal ethical theoreticians are a bit idiosyncratic); there are few criticisms of pro-animal moral theorizing, little anti-animal ethical theorizing, and few defenses of particular animal uses; furthermore, the selection on animal experimentation is sparse. The strengths seem to be in the areas of wildlife and environmental issues, as those seem to be the editors’ specialties.
    2. Tom Regan and Carl Cohen, The Animal Rights Debate (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001) and Tom Regan, Animal Rights, Human Wrongs: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) (which is mostly The Animal Rights Debate minus Cohen’s contribution) are great introductions: the latter argues for moral rights for animals (and humans) by examining competing moral theories. Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights (University of California, 1983/2004) was recently reissued as a 20th anniversary edition with an updated preface containing replies to critics.
    3. Tom Regan and Peter Singer, eds., Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall, 1989). An excellent collection, despite its age, but is very expensive ($75 new, but much cheaper used).
    4. Bernard Rollin, Animal Rights and Human Morality, 3rd Ed. (Prometheus, 2006, 1998, 1981). Rollin is a philosopher who has interacted with tens of thousands of people employed in animal agribusiness and experimentation and so has a unique and valuable perspective on the issues. His book is written in a personal style, with many anecdotes about his experiences.
    5. Angus Taylor, Animals and Ethics: An Overview of the Philosophical Debate, 3rd edition (Broadview 2009). A nice overview of the literature. (On Amazon.)
    6. Clare Palmer, “Animals in Anglo-American Philosophy” http://www.h-net.org/~animal/ruminations_palmer.html
    7. Scott Wilson, “Animals and Ethics,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/anim-eth.htm
    8. Lori Gruen, “The Moral Status of Animals,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-animal/
    9. On argument analysis Richard Feldman’s (University of Rochester, Philosophy) Reason and Argument text, 2nd Ed. (Prentice Hall, 1998

    On ethics

    10. James Fieser, “Ethics,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (sections 2 and 3, on Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics are most relevant): http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm

    On Animal Minds / Cognitive Ethology

    11. Colin Allen (mypage.iu.edu/~colallen/), “Animal Consciousness,” entry in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/co...usness-animal/

    12. Jonathan Balcombe, Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and The Nature of Feeling Good (MacMillan 2006) www.pleasurablekingdom.com/

    13. Marc Bekoff’s web page and books:literati.net/Bekoff/

    14. Nathan Nobis & Scott McElreath, Making Moral Progress:

    15. An Ethical Arguments Workbook, www.MakingMoralProgress.com (in progress)


    This page titled 8.8: Recommended Further Reading- is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Nathan Nobis (Open Philosophy Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.