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Animals

A History

By: Peter Adamson (Editor), G. Fay Edwards (Editor)

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Hardcover | 28 June 2018

At a Glance

Hardcover
472 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 2.54

Hardcover

$346.99

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Philosophical controversy over non-human animals extends further back than many realize -- before Utilitarianism and Darwinism to the very genesis of philosophy. This volume examines the richness and complexity of that long history.

Twelve essays trace the significance of animals from Greek and Indian antiquity through the Islamic and Latin medieval traditions, to Renaissance and early modern thought, ending with contemporary notions about animals. Two main questions emerge throughout the volume: what capacities can be ascribed to animals, and how should we treat them? Notoriously ungenerous attitudes towards animals' mental lives and ethics status, found for instance in Aristotle and Descartes, are shown to have been more nuanced than often supposed, while remarkable defenses of benevolence towards animals are unearthed in late antiquity, India, the Islamic world, and Kant. Other chapters examine cannibalism and vegetarianism in Renaissance thought, and the scientific testing of animals. A series of interdisciplinary reflections sheds further light on human attitudes towards animals, looking at their depiction in visual artworks from China, Africa, and Europe, as well as the rich tradition of animal fables
beginning with Aesop.

Industry Reviews

"Each of the twelve chapters of this collection presents a nuanced reading of a historical period or thinker and shows their attitudes towards non-human animals to be well-developed, explicitly argued and informed by up-to-date empirical knowledge...Overall, Animals: A History represents a genuine contribution to debates about animal cognition and animal ethics. This contribution comes not through the introduction of new figures or arguments, but rather through grounding existing figures and arguments in an impressive level of philosophical detail and historical depth. Those who read this book will no longer be satisfied with the lazy caricatures of Aristotle, Descartes, Kant and others which haunt our discourse about animals, but will see them as the worthy interlocutors and historically grounded thinkers that they are." -- British Journal for the History of Philosophy "Those who have pondered ethical treatment of nonhuman animals, their behavior and cognition, and their supposed inferiority to humans will particularly appreciate this volume ... The contributors are accomplished in their fields, and their prose is accessible ... Highly recommended." -- A. Wirkkala, CHOICE

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