Deep ethology, animal rights, and the great ape/animal project: Resisting speciesism and expanding the community of equals [Book Review]
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 10 (3):269-296 (1997)
Abstract |
In this essay I argue that the evolutionary and comparative study of nonhuman animal (hereafter animal) cognition in a wide range of taxa by cognitive ethologists can readily inform discussions about animal protection and animal rights. However, while it is clear that there is a link between animal cognitive abilities and animal pain and suffering, I agree with Jeremy Bentham who claimed long ago the real question does not deal with whether individuals can think or reason but rather with whether or not individuals can suffer. One of my major goals will be to make the case that the time has come to expand. The Great Ape Project (GAP) to The Great Ape/Animal Project (GA/AP) and to take seriously the moral status and rights of all animals by presupposing that all individuals should be admitted into the Community of Equals. I also argue that individuals count and that it is essential to avoid being speciesist cognitivists; it really doesn't matter whether ‘dogs ape’ or whether ‘apes dog’ when taking into account the worlds of different individual animals. Narrow-minded primatocentrism and speciesism must be resisted in our studies of animal cognition and animal protection and rights. Line-drawing into ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ species is a misleading speciesist practice that should be vigorously resisted because not only is line-drawing bad biology but also because it can have disastrous consequences for how animals are viewed and treated. Speciesist line-drawing also ignores within species individual differences
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Keywords | Cognitive ethology animal cognition The Great Ape Project (GAP) The Great Ape/Animal Project (GA/AP) Community of Equals speciesism moral individualism animal rights |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2004 |
DOI | 10.1023/A:1007726525969 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World.David Abram (ed.) - 1996 - Vintage Books.
Cognitive Ethology: Slayers, Skeptics, and Proponents.Marc Bekoff & Colin Allen - 1997 - In R. Mitchell, Nicholas S. Thompson & H. L. Miles (eds.), Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals. Suny Press. pp. 313--334.
Cognitive Ethology and the Intentionality of Animal Behavior.Colin Allen & Marc Bekoff - 1995 - Mind and Language 10 (4):313-328.
Carruthers on Nonconscious Experience.Dale W. Jamieson & Marc Bekoff - 1992 - Analysis 52 (1):23-28.
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Citations of this work BETA
What is Speciesism?Oscar Horta - 2010 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23 (3):243-266.
Self-Interest for the Greater Good. Review of Deckers, J . Animal Liberation: Should the Consumption of Animals Be Banned? London: Ubiquity Press.Linnea I. Laestadius - 2017 - Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 23 (5):1101-1104.
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People Promoting and People Opposing Animal Rights: In Their Own Words.John M. Kistler - 2002 - Greenwood Press.
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