Taking Animals Seriously Mental Life and Moral Status [Hardcover]

This book offers the most judicious and well-balanced account yet available of the moral standing of animals.Transcending the overplayed debate between utilitarians and rights theorists the book employs a fresh methodological approach with specific and constructive conclusions about our treatment of animals. It provides the most thorough discussion yet of whether equal consideration should be extended to animals' interests.Transcending the overplayed debate between utilitarians and rights theorists the book employs a fresh methodological approach with specific and constructive conclusions about our treatment of animals. It provides the most thorough discussion yet of whether equal consideration should be extended to animals' interests.Transcending the overplayed debate between utilitarians and rights theorists, the book offers a fresh methodological approach with specific constructive conclusions about our treatment of animals. David DeGrazia provides the most thorough discussion yet of whether equal consideration should be extended to animals' interests, and examines the issues of animal minds and animal well-being with an unparalleled combination of philosophical rigor and empirical documentation. This book is an important contribution to the field of animal ethics.1. A short primer on animal ethics; 2. The coherence model of ethical justification; 3. Animals' moral status and the issue of equal consideration; 4. Motivation and methods for studying animal minds; 5. Feelings; 6. Desires and beliefs; 7. Self-awareness, language, moral agency, and autonomy; 8. The basics of well-being across species; 9. Back to animal ethics. David DeGrazia has explored some very complex issues in ethics and philosophy of mind concerning the mental lives, well-being, and moral status of non-human animals. The results show both impressive philosophical sophistication and an excellent command of the empirical literature. Taking Animals Seriously ranks with the very best work done by lS%