Animals, Men and Morals
Animals, Men and Morals: An Inquiry into the Maltreatment of Non-humans (1971) is a collection of essays on animal rights, edited by Oxford philosophers Stanley and Roslind Godlovitch, both from Canada, and John Harris from the UK. The editors were members of the Oxford Group, a group of postgraduate philosophy students and others based at the University of Oxford from 1968, who began raising the idea of animal rights in seminars and campaigning locally against factory farming and otter hunting.
The book was ground-breaking in its time, because it was one of the early publications in the mid-20th century that argued clearly in favour of animal liberation/animal rights, rather than simply for compassion in the way animals are used. The editors wrote in the introduction: "Once the full force of moral assessment has been made explicit there can be no rational excuse left for killing animals, be they killed for food, science, or sheer personal indulgence". |
Origins
Apart from the Godlovitches and Harris, the group also included David Wood and sociology student Mike Peters. The Godlovitches had recently become vegan on moral grounds, and soon after Harris and Wood met them, the latter were also persuaded that the case against exploiting animals was unanswerable, and they also became vegan. The group then began to raise the issue in lectures and seminars in moral philosophy at Oxford, and also began local campaigning against factory farming, otter hunting, and other animal exploitation issues.
The initial inspiration for the book was the discovery of an article called "The Rights of Animals" by the novelist Brigid Brophy, which had been published in The Sunday Times in October 1965. Brophy's piece was devastating in its brief and unsentimental statement of the case for animal rights. It began:
The initial inspiration for the book was the discovery of an article called "The Rights of Animals" by the novelist Brigid Brophy, which had been published in The Sunday Times in October 1965. Brophy's piece was devastating in its brief and unsentimental statement of the case for animal rights. It began:
- Were it to be announced tomorrow that anyone who fancied it might, without risk of reprisals or recriminations, stand at a fourth story window, dangle out of it a length of string with a meal (labelled 'Free') on the end, wait until a chance passer-by took a bite and then, having entangled his cheek or gullet on a hook hidden in the food, haul him up to the fourth floor and there batter him to death with a knobkerrie, I do not think there would be many takers.
- In point of fact, I am the very opposite of an anthromorphiser. I don't hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality and moral choice – and that is precisely why we are under the obligation to recognise and respect the rights of animals.
Soon after the Godlovitches and Harris read the article, the idea of creating a book, or symposium of articles, began to emerge. Much of what was written at that time about animal welfare was anthropomorphic and sentimental in tone. There was plainly a need for something which offered an alternative, in the form of a clear and rigorous philosophical and moral perspective. The group began to draw up a list of possible contributors. Members of the group went to London and visited Brophy, who was enthusiastic and agreed to contribute.
Brophy then introduced the group to Richard D. Ryder, a clinical psychologist based in Oxford, who later agreed to write a piece on animal experimentation. The group began to visit publishers, and when they met Giles Gordon of Victor Gollancz, he persuaded them that they should themselves write chapters for the book, as well as better known authors, as this would make the whole more interesting. Gollancz also agreed to publish it.
The editors were uncompromising in their Introduction:
Brophy then introduced the group to Richard D. Ryder, a clinical psychologist based in Oxford, who later agreed to write a piece on animal experimentation. The group began to visit publishers, and when they met Giles Gordon of Victor Gollancz, he persuaded them that they should themselves write chapters for the book, as well as better known authors, as this would make the whole more interesting. Gollancz also agreed to publish it.
The editors were uncompromising in their Introduction:
- Once the full force of moral assessment has been made explicit there can be no rational excuse left for killing animals, be they killed for food, science, or sheer personal indulgence...should the reader himself find no fault in the positions he will find in these pages he is, as a rational being, committed to act in accordance with them. Should he fail to do so, he can only have been terribly misled since childhood about the nature of morality
Contents
The book contains essays by Ruth Harrison on factory farming; Muriel Dowding, founder of Beauty without Cruelty, on furs and cosmetics; Richard D. Ryder on animal testing; and Terence Hegarty from the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments on alternatives.
John Harris writes about killing for food, Maureen Duffy about hunting, Brigid Brophy about the need for animal rights, Roslind and Stanley Godlovitch about the ethics, and Leonard Nelson (the German philosopher who died in 1927) about duties to animals. There are essays from David Wood and Michael Peters on the sociological position, and a postscript from Patrick Corbett, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex. Corbett concluded with: "Let animal slavery join human slavery in the graveyard of the past!"
It was in Ryder's article that the word "speciesism" made its first appearance in an independent publication. Ryder had first used it in 1970 in a privately printed pamphlet, entitled "Speciesism," which he had distributed around Oxford and sent to the colleges.He argued in the book that speciesism is as illogical as racism, writing that "species" and "race" are both vague terms, and asked: "If, under special conditions, it were one day found possible to cross a professor of biology with an ape, would the offspring be kept in a cage or in a cradle?"
John Harris writes about killing for food, Maureen Duffy about hunting, Brigid Brophy about the need for animal rights, Roslind and Stanley Godlovitch about the ethics, and Leonard Nelson (the German philosopher who died in 1927) about duties to animals. There are essays from David Wood and Michael Peters on the sociological position, and a postscript from Patrick Corbett, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex. Corbett concluded with: "Let animal slavery join human slavery in the graveyard of the past!"
It was in Ryder's article that the word "speciesism" made its first appearance in an independent publication. Ryder had first used it in 1970 in a privately printed pamphlet, entitled "Speciesism," which he had distributed around Oxford and sent to the colleges.He argued in the book that speciesism is as illogical as racism, writing that "species" and "race" are both vague terms, and asked: "If, under special conditions, it were one day found possible to cross a professor of biology with an ape, would the offspring be kept in a cage or in a cradle?"
Reception
The book got into trouble from the moment of publication, because two animal experimenters named by the editors in Ryder's piece objected to what had been written about them. The publisher Gollancz was forced by the threat of legal action to pay damages, and to put an errata slip in all copies. In terms of public reception, the unusual and radical approach taken by the book meant that it created a small stir in the United Kingdom. John Harris was interviewed on the PM programme, and appeared on local television. The book was also reviewed in several papers and journals.
But the way forward for animal rights as an issue was eventually to occur by a different route. The Australian philosopher Peter Singer had come to vegetarianism through meeting the Godlovitches when he was a postgraduate student in Oxford, and gave critical feedback on Roslind Godlovitch's contribution to the book. It was in his review of the book for The New York Review of Books in 1973 that Singer first used the term "animal liberation," writing that "Animals, Men and Morals is a manifesto for an Animal Liberation movement." The article prompted the New York Review to commission a book on the subject from Singer, which was published as Animal Liberation (1975), and which became one of the animal rights movement's canonical texts - Source
But the way forward for animal rights as an issue was eventually to occur by a different route. The Australian philosopher Peter Singer had come to vegetarianism through meeting the Godlovitches when he was a postgraduate student in Oxford, and gave critical feedback on Roslind Godlovitch's contribution to the book. It was in his review of the book for The New York Review of Books in 1973 that Singer first used the term "animal liberation," writing that "Animals, Men and Morals is a manifesto for an Animal Liberation movement." The article prompted the New York Review to commission a book on the subject from Singer, which was published as Animal Liberation (1975), and which became one of the animal rights movement's canonical texts - Source
Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals is a 1975 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer. It is widely considered within the animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas. Singer himself rejected the use of the theoretical framework of rights when it comes to human and nonhuman animals. Following Jeremy Bentham, Singer argued that the interests of animals should be considered because of their ability to experience suffering and that the idea of rights was not necessary in order to consider them. His ethical ideas fall under the umbrella of biocentrism. He popularized the term "speciesism" in the book, which had been coined by Richard D. Ryder to describe the exploitative treatment of animals
SummarySinger's central argument is an expansion of the utilitarian idea that "the greatest good" is the only measure of good or ethical behavior. He argues that there is no reason not to apply this principle to other animals.
Although Singer rejects rights as a moral concept independent from his utilitarianism based on interests, he accepts rights as derived from utilitarian principles, particularly the principle of minimizing suffering. Singer allows that animal rights are not the same as human rights, writing in Animal Liberation that "there are obviously important differences between humans and other animals, and these differences must give rise to some differences in the rights that each have."
In Animal Liberation, Singer argues against what he calls speciesism: discrimination on the grounds that a being belongs to a certain species. He holds the interests of all beings capable of suffering to be worthy of equal consideration and that giving lesser consideration to beings based on their species is no more justified than discrimination based on skin color. He argues that animals rights should be based on their capacity to feel pain more than on their intelligence. In particular, he argues that while animals show lower intelligence than the average human, many severely intellectually challenged humans show equally diminished, if not lower, mental capacity and that some animals have displayed signs of intelligence (for example, primates learning elements of American sign language and other symbolic languages) sometimes on a par with that of human children. Therefore, intelligence does not provide a basis for giving nonhuman animals any less consideration than such intellectually challenged humans. Singer concludes that the most practical solution is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. He also condemns vivisection except where the benefit (in terms of improved medical treatment, etc.) outweighs the harm done to the animals used.
Although Singer rejects rights as a moral concept independent from his utilitarianism based on interests, he accepts rights as derived from utilitarian principles, particularly the principle of minimizing suffering. Singer allows that animal rights are not the same as human rights, writing in Animal Liberation that "there are obviously important differences between humans and other animals, and these differences must give rise to some differences in the rights that each have."
In Animal Liberation, Singer argues against what he calls speciesism: discrimination on the grounds that a being belongs to a certain species. He holds the interests of all beings capable of suffering to be worthy of equal consideration and that giving lesser consideration to beings based on their species is no more justified than discrimination based on skin color. He argues that animals rights should be based on their capacity to feel pain more than on their intelligence. In particular, he argues that while animals show lower intelligence than the average human, many severely intellectually challenged humans show equally diminished, if not lower, mental capacity and that some animals have displayed signs of intelligence (for example, primates learning elements of American sign language and other symbolic languages) sometimes on a par with that of human children. Therefore, intelligence does not provide a basis for giving nonhuman animals any less consideration than such intellectually challenged humans. Singer concludes that the most practical solution is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. He also condemns vivisection except where the benefit (in terms of improved medical treatment, etc.) outweighs the harm done to the animals used.
Reception
The book has also received a wide range of philosophical challenges to his formulation of animal rights. In a lengthy debate in Slate Magazine, Richard Posner wrote that Singer failed to see the "radicalism of the ethical vision that powers [his] view on animals, an ethical vision that finds greater value in a healthy pig than in a profoundly intellectually challenged child, that commands inflicting a lesser pain on a human being to avert a greater pain to a dog, and that, provided only that a chimpanzee has 1 percent of the mental ability of a normal human being, would require the sacrifice of the human being to save 101 chimpanzees. Singer replied to and rejected this claim.
In addition, Martha Nussbaum has argued that the Capability Approach provides a more adequate foundation of justice than Utilitarianism can supply. Utilitarianism, Nussbaum argues, ignores adaptive preferences, elides the separateness of distinct persons, misidentifies valuable human/non-human emotions such as grief, and calculates according to "sum-rankings" rather than inviolable protection of intrinsic entitlements. Singer replied to this critique.
Ingrid Newkirk wrote of Animal Liberation, "It forever changed the conversation about our treatment of animals. It made people—myself included—change what we ate, what we wore, and how we perceived animals.
In addition, Martha Nussbaum has argued that the Capability Approach provides a more adequate foundation of justice than Utilitarianism can supply. Utilitarianism, Nussbaum argues, ignores adaptive preferences, elides the separateness of distinct persons, misidentifies valuable human/non-human emotions such as grief, and calculates according to "sum-rankings" rather than inviolable protection of intrinsic entitlements. Singer replied to this critique.
Ingrid Newkirk wrote of Animal Liberation, "It forever changed the conversation about our treatment of animals. It made people—myself included—change what we ate, what we wore, and how we perceived animals.
Personal background
In an essay entitled "Animal Liberation: A Personal View", Singer describes the personal background that led to his adoption of the views he sets out in Animal Liberation. He writes of how he arrived in Oxford in October 1969, and in 1970 had lunch with a fellow graduate student, Richard Keshen, who avoided meat. This led Singer to inquire as to why. Singer then read Ruth Harrison's book, Animal Machines, as well as a paper by Roslind Godlovitch (who would later co-edit Animals, Men and Morals), which convinced him to become a vegetarian and to take animal suffering seriously as a philosophical issue - Source
Animal Machines
Ruth Harrison, who has died aged 80, was the first person to open the doors of the factory farm to the public. Her Animal Machines, published in 1964, revealed the indignities and suffering inflicted on farm animals by industrialised agriculture.Her descriptions of the new agricultural systems, including battery cages for hens, individual crates for veal calves and tether stalls for sows, in which animals were reduced to the status of production units, inspired Britain's first farm animal welfare legislation, the 1968 Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act and also the European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes, which was set up by the Council of Europe in 1976.
From the publication of Animal Machines, which was translated into seven languages, until her death, Ruth worked within the political processes to obtain a fair deal for farm animals to ensure that, as she wrote in a contribution to Animals, Men And Morals, an "animal has pleasure in life while it lives and is then humanely slaughtered."
In her lifetime she saw many improvements. Veal crates (1990) and sow/tether stalls (1999) become illegal in Britain. Last year saw the announcement that battery cages will be phased out by 2012, and application of the protocol to the Treaty of Rome, which defines farm animals as "sentient beings" and obliges the European Union to take this status into account when formulating legislation.
Born in London, Ruth read English at London University. She was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), working with the Friends' Ambulance Unit during the war and with displaced persons in post-war Germany. Back in Britain she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and obtained a university diploma, and directed An Inspector Calls with Peter Barkworth and Robert Shaw, being commended for her direction by JB Priestley.
She later worked for a firm of architects. In 1954 she married architect Dex Harrison.
From the publication of Animal Machines, which was translated into seven languages, until her death, Ruth worked within the political processes to obtain a fair deal for farm animals to ensure that, as she wrote in a contribution to Animals, Men And Morals, an "animal has pleasure in life while it lives and is then humanely slaughtered."
In her lifetime she saw many improvements. Veal crates (1990) and sow/tether stalls (1999) become illegal in Britain. Last year saw the announcement that battery cages will be phased out by 2012, and application of the protocol to the Treaty of Rome, which defines farm animals as "sentient beings" and obliges the European Union to take this status into account when formulating legislation.
Born in London, Ruth read English at London University. She was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), working with the Friends' Ambulance Unit during the war and with displaced persons in post-war Germany. Back in Britain she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and obtained a university diploma, and directed An Inspector Calls with Peter Barkworth and Robert Shaw, being commended for her direction by JB Priestley.
She later worked for a firm of architects. In 1954 she married architect Dex Harrison.
In Britain Ruth served on the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, (later the Farm Animal Welfare Council), and on those expert independent committees appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture. In Strasbourg, she participated in the Council of Europe's standing committee of the convention on the protection of animals kept for farming purposes, as representative of the World Society for the Protection of Animals and, latterly, the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare. She was deeply committed to the work of the Council of Europe and for the past few years, during her final illness, timed her hospital treatments to ensure that she would be fit enough to travel.
Ruth was enormously respected, but would not suffer fools gladly. She had an innate moral sense, and an in-depth knowledge of farming practices and of the latest scientific papers. When researching killing methods for mink on fur farms, she was asked what she thought of the use of carbon monoxide.
Ruth was enormously respected, but would not suffer fools gladly. She had an innate moral sense, and an in-depth knowledge of farming practices and of the latest scientific papers. When researching killing methods for mink on fur farms, she was asked what she thought of the use of carbon monoxide.
Ruth said this was highly irritant - she had tried it herself in a small experiment and presented the findings to the Council of Europe to assist its discussions on humane killing method for factory farm mink. In fact, she opposed the adoption of standards for fur farms. She believed it was immoral to farm and kill animals for their fur.
She served either as a director or council member of the Conservation Society, Soil Association, Animal Defence Society, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Society for the Protection of Animals. Her work for animals won her many awards including the OBE. She lectured extensively in Europe.
Because of her illness Ruth never completed a project to write a sequel to Animal Machines, but the legacy of that book, and her example, will continue to inspire campaigns throughout the world. Ruth will be missed by her family, her friends and by the many animal welfarists, farmers, scientists and campaigners with whom she worked.
Her husband predeceased her. She leaves two children, Jonathan and Jane. Ruth Harrison, animal rights campaigner, born June 6 1920; died June 13 2000 - Source
She served either as a director or council member of the Conservation Society, Soil Association, Animal Defence Society, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Society for the Protection of Animals. Her work for animals won her many awards including the OBE. She lectured extensively in Europe.
Because of her illness Ruth never completed a project to write a sequel to Animal Machines, but the legacy of that book, and her example, will continue to inspire campaigns throughout the world. Ruth will be missed by her family, her friends and by the many animal welfarists, farmers, scientists and campaigners with whom she worked.
Her husband predeceased her. She leaves two children, Jonathan and Jane. Ruth Harrison, animal rights campaigner, born June 6 1920; died June 13 2000 - Source