Reviews for Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status

The average rating for Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-09 00:00:00 Mildred C St John In Taking Animals Seriously, David DeGrazia offers an impressively thorough examination of the moral status and minds of non-human animals. He makes a robust case for applying a principle of equal consideration to animals' interests. And he brings considerable philosophical acumen to bear on empirical work concerning the mental lives of animals'focussing especially on the extent to which we find in the animal kingdom the mental capacities for feelings, desires and beliefs, self-awareness, language, moral agency and autonomy. In the final chapters, he develops a conception of well-being to guide comparisons between the interests of humans and other animals, and he draws out the implications of his views for our treatment of animals. All in all, Taking Animals Seriously defends highly nuanced positions on these topics, with exceptional argumentative rigour and attention to detail. This is an excellent book for readers who have previously reviewed the terrible things we do to our fellow creatures, in such works as Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, and now seek a more comprehensive framework with which to think about issues in animal ethics. The writing is remarkably clear, though the content may be challenging to readers without a background in philosophy. DeGrazia doesn't assume any familiarity with the issues in moral philosophy and the philosophy of mind which he explores, but I would still caution readers new to philosophy to approach the text with some patience. At least, I can promise that such patience will be rewarded by the book's insights several times over.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-08-16 00:00:00 Andrew Boeckel So far this has been very worth reading. A paradigm of doing your homework, summarizing what others have said, and having a reasonable critical response. Update: finished it. Good stuff. Though you can probably skip chaps. 2, 4, and 8. The best chapters are 3 and 5. The first is a critical overview of traditional philosophical views on our ethical responsibilities w/r/t animals. The second covers animal feelings (e..g, pleasure and pain).