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This book affords a neopragmatic theory of animal ethics, taking its lead from American Pragmatism to place language at the centre of philosophical analysis. Following a method traceable to Dewey, Wittgenstein and Rorty, Hadley argues that many enduring puzzles about human interactions with animals can be 'dissolved' by understanding why people use terms like dignity, respect, naturalness, and inherent value. Hadley shifts the debate about animal welfare and rights from its current focus upon contentious claims about value and animal mindedness, to the vocabulary people use to express their concern for the suffering and lives of animals. With its emphasis on public concern for animals, animal neopragmatism is a uniquely progressive and democratic theory of animal ethics.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. The Political Problem of Welfare.- 3. The Philosophical Problem of Welfare.- 4. Relational Hedonism.- 5. Responses to the Welfare Problems.- 6. Two Problems for Animal Rights Theory.- 7. Objections to Animal Neopragmatism.- 8. Welfare, Rights, and Pragmatism.
About the author
John Hadley is a senior lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University, Australia. He is the author of Animal Property Rights: A Theory of Habitat Rights for Wild Animals (2015), and co-editor, with Elisa Aaltola, of Animal Ethics and Philosophy: Questioning the Orthodoxy (2015).
Summary
This book affords a neopragmatic theory of animal ethics, taking its lead from American Pragmatism to place language at the centre of philosophical analysis. Following a method traceable to Dewey, Wittgenstein and Rorty, Hadley argues that many enduring puzzles about human interactions with animals can be ‘dissolved’ by understanding why people use terms like dignity, respect, naturalness, and inherent value. Hadley shifts the debate about animal welfare and rights from its current focus upon contentious claims about value and animal mindedness, to the vocabulary people use to express their concern for the suffering and lives of animals. With its emphasis on public concern for animals, animal neopragmatism is a uniquely progressive and democratic theory of animal ethics.
