ELSEVIER Applied Animal Behaviour Science 43 ( 1995) 301-306

APPLIED ANIMAL EEHAVIOUR

SCIENCE

Book reviews

New books on animal ethics

AnimalMinds and Human Morals-The Origins of the Western Debate, by Richard Sorabji, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1993, 267 pp., US$59.50, ISBN 0-8014-2948-x.

Animal Welfare and Human Values, by Rod Preece and Lorna Chamberlain, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Canada, 1993, 334 pp., C$34.95, f31, ISBN 0-88920-227- 3.

A Descartes Dictionary, by John Cottingham, Blackwell, Oxford, 1993, 187 pp., g37.50 (hardback), g14.95 (paperback), ISBN O-631-17683-7.

Applied animal behaviour has played an important role in exploring how moral judge- ments about animal use are linked to our understanding of the cognitive powers and sub- jective experiences of animals. Three recent books provide valuable historical perspectives on the contemporary debate.

In Animal Minds and Human Morals, Richard Sorabji (Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of London) shows that ideas about the ethical treatment of animals have hinged, since the time of the ancient Greeks, on our beliefs about the mental capacities that animals possess. Aristotle, Sorabji notes, concluded that animals are not endowed with reason. This, for Aristotle, was principally a scientific conclusion, but it became the basis for ethical attitudes toward animals in the Stoic and Epicurean traditions, both of which denied animals a place in their systems of justice. However, profound disagreement came from other classical philosophers including Pythagoras (6th century BC), who favoured the use of vegetarian sacrifice to the gods, partly on the grounds of our kinship with animals, Empedocles (5th century BC),who considered meat-eating to be “the greatest pollution among men’ ’ , and Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, who proposed kinship between humans and animals partly because we are alike in having emotions, appetites, perceptions and even reason.

Although the book dwells mainly on the ancient world, the author also gives a brief account of the evolution of contemporary Western thinking on animal ethics. He argues that Western Christianity’s relative complacency on animal issues stems from Augustine (4th century) and Thomas Aquinas (13th century), who took up only one side, that of Aristotle and the Stoics, of the more balanced ancient debate. Sorabji ends with a chapter

302 Book reviews

on contemporary animal ethics in which he criticizes the “one-dimensionality” of current animal liberation and animal rights thinking.

Sorabji’s book is a scholarly work in the history of ideas, roughly half devoted to the analysis of mental concepts and half to the ethical debates, and with rarely a page lacking a half-dozen references to historical texts. While this might seem daunting to the non- specialist, the author’s charming prose style will make the book accessible to all who appreciate clear scholarly exposition, and no one interested in animal ethics will fail to be intrigued by how thoroughly the contemporary debate was anticipated in classical times.

Animal Welfare and Human Values was co-authored by two individuals active in the humane movement in Canada. The book focuses principally on practical, contemporary issues of animal welfare, but with a rich historical perspective. Like Sorabji, the authors are unsatisfied by the work of contemporary animal ethics philosophers such as Peter Singer and Tom Regan. They propose that our best hope for progress lies not in tightly argued philosophy in the tradition of Western liberal individualism, which roots morality in the principle of equality of individuals. Rather, Preece and Chamberlain favour communitarian ideas whereby our intuitions of right and wrong stem from a sense of community and shared relationships. They cite the notion of Sir Francis Bacon (ca. 1600) that in so far as our human interests are not threatened, we have a natural propensity to respect the interests of animals. They trace this idea through the “natural compassion” of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (cc. 1750) and the “unconscious identity” with animals expounded in the present century by Carl Gustav Jung. They argue that improved animal welfare depends on society reawak- ening its “sensibility” toward animals (defined as emotion refined by “reflection in relation to compassion”), which has been dulled but not erased since the onset of Western civili- zation.

In addition to the philosophical sections, the book includes chapters on most of the major animal welfare issues of today, including agriculture, fur, biomedical research, entertain- ment, and recreational hunting and fishing. These vary in depth and balance; the chapter on zoos seems well researched and constructive, while that on agriculture is superficial. None- theless, the book tries (and largely succeeds) to present thoughtful views on both practical and philosophical aspects of animal ethics.

Finally, contemporary writers often see RenC Descartes (1596-1650) as a key figure in Western animal ethics, blaming him for the view that animals are unfeeling automata toward which we have no moral obligations. However, scholars are divided over whether this was his true intention. A Descartes Dictionary consists of short discussions of the principal themes and topics in Descartes’ work, set out in dictionary form. The author includes entries on animals, automata, mind and body, and sensation. These make it clear that Descartes viewed animals as non-rational and lacking minds, but the author discusses the conflicting passages that cast doubt on the traditional view that Descartes actually considered animals devoid of sensation and subjective experience.

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DAVID FRASER

Centre for Food and Animal Research Central Experimental Farm

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Ottawa KlA OC6

Canada