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Palgrave Macmillan

Animal Suffering, Human Rights, and the Virtue of Justice

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Per Bauhn

    1. Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

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  • Provides arguments in defence of speciesism and against animal rights
  • Argues that we cannot escape a speciesist perspective on morality
  • Improves on the Kantian causal argument concerning indirect human duties to animals

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 1-4

  3. The Suffering Inflicted on Non-Human Animals by Human Agents

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 5-8

  4. Speciesism

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 9-19

  5. Sentientist Equality

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 21-34

  6. Kant on Duties to Animals

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 35-40

  7. Gewirthian Human Rights and Non-Human Animals

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 41-47

  8. Why Non-Human Animals Do Not Have Moral Rights

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 49-55

  9. In Defence of a Speciesist View of the Moral Community

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 57-71

  10. Duties Regarding Animals and the Virtue of Justice

    • Per Bauhn
    Pages 73-80

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 81-83
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Keywords

About this book

In this book, Per Bauhn does three things. First, he outlines some aspects of contemporary philosophical views on animals and morality, including the criticism of speciesism and the animal rights argument. Second, he criticizes these views, arguing that we cannot escape a speciesist perspective on morality, and that there are no good reasons why we should believe that non-human animals have moral rights. Third, he argues that cruelty against non-human animals is morally wrong, but not because animal rights are being violated but because human agents who inflict cruelty on non-human animals are failing their duty to develop in themselves the virtue of justice. This latter argument is reminiscent of Immanuel Kant’s idea that we have only indirect duties towards animals, but unlike that idea, Bauhn's argument does not depend on any causal hypothesis that humans who are cruel to animals are likely to be cruel also to their fellow humans. Instead, Bauhn's argument relies on the fact that being cruel to non-human animals and other innocent beings is conceptually and logically inconsistent with the virtue of justice – a virtue which agents are rationally required to develop in themselves.

Reviews

“Per Bauhn's book presents an original argument about animal rights and is stronger than most of the other arguments presented in the field. Bauhn situates the origin of rights claims in general (including humans) and sets out the structure of all such arguments. Because of the rigor and originality of Bauhn’s argument, it will become a topic of conversation within academic circles. This is a must read for those teaching Animal Rights or Environmental Ethics classes. It also sets out a fundamental argument that will stimulate other researchers to take account of this position. Highly recommended.”

—Michael Boylan, Professor of Philosophy, Marymount University, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  • Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden

    Per Bauhn

About the author

Per Bauhn is Emeritus Professor of Practical Philosophy at Linnaeus University, Sweden.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Animal Suffering, Human Rights, and the Virtue of Justice

  • Authors: Per Bauhn

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27048-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-27047-5Published: 30 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-27048-2Published: 29 March 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 83

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science, Ethics

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