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All that Dwell Therein
Tom Regan
其他書名
Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics
出版University of California Press, 1982
主題Nature / Animal RightsPolitical Science / Public Policy / Environmental Policy
ISBN05200457189780520045712
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=e8e9wAEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋That humanity routinely commits a multitude of crimes against animals and nature is a fact few of us would deny. Bur only recently have Western philosophers sought a more balanced definition of the relationship between man - "the measure of all things" - and the rest of the planet. In these thought-provoking essays, Tom Regan, philosophy's leading proponent of animal rights, goes farther than anyone has toward establishing a truly moral conception of man's relationship and the environment. Ranging in topic from the moral basis of vegetarianism to the ambiguity of the Native American's view of nature, the essays form a consistent argument. The author maintains that animals have the moral right to live and be spared gratuitous suffering. He argues that cultural acceptance does not itself morally justify the killing of animals, yet he clearly differentiates his line of reasoning from that of a fellow proponent of animal welfare, Peter Singer. Like Regan, Singer has challenged the chauvinism of our attitude towards animals - but from the point of view of philosophical utilitarianism. In these essays, Regan demonstrates that utilitarianism - the consideration of the greatest good for all concerned - does not supply a firm enough basis for the treatment of animals. He proposes a theory of rights because only a theory of rights is adequate to this task in the case of either humans or animals. Regan goes to consider the use of animals in scientific research, explaining the failure of concepts such as cruelty or kindness to protect animals from fates we would not inflict on any human being. Because cruelty and kindness both focus on the motivation of the actor, neither can completely proscribe inhumanity to animals. He also analyzes the immorality of whaling and considers the legal status of animals. In the closing essays he lays the groundwork for extending to nature in general the philosophical stance he has argued so persuasively in regard to animals. By doing so, he makes possible a truly revolutionary environmental ethic founded on a philosophy of respect for all that dwell therein.