Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Animals: Animals are subjects of moral consideration, prompting debates on ethics, consciousness, and our responsibilities towards non-human beings in philosophical discourse. They challenge notions of personhood and the nature of sentience._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Feminism on Animals - Dictionary of Arguments
Braidotti I 77 Animals/Feminism: A liberal humanist like Nussbaum (2006)(1) agrees to pursue species equity. Working within the classical liberal tradition, Mary Midgley (1996)(2) does not even trust the term ‘anthropocentrism’, referring to it as ‘human chauvinism; narrowness of sympathy, comparable to national, or race or gender-chauvinism. It could also be called exclusive humanism, as opposed to the hospitable, friendly, inclusive kind’ (1996(2): 105). The alternative Midgley supports is to admit that ‘we are not self-contained and self-sufficient, either as a species or as individuals, but live naturally in deep mutual dependence’ (1996(2): 9-10). In her powerful analyses of the environmental crisis of reason, Val Plumwood (2003)(7) also calls for a new dialogical interspecies ethics based on decentring human privilege. Ecofeminism: For radical eco-feminists, both utilitarianism and liberalism are found wanting: the former for its condescending approach to non-human others, the latter in view of the hypocritical denial of humans’ manipulative mastery over animals. This critique is expanded to the destructive side of human individualism that entails selfishness and a misplaced sense of superiority, which for feminists (Donovan and Adams, 1996(3), 2007(4)) is connected to male privileges and the oppression of women and supports a general theory of male domination. Meat-eating is targeted as a legalized form of cannibalism by old and new feminist vegetarian and vegan critical theory (Adams, 1990(5); MacCormack, 2012(6)). Speciesism is therefore held accountable as an undue privilege to the same degree as sexism and racism. The pervasiveness of a ‘sex-species’ hierarchical system tends to remain unacknowledged and uncriticized even in the framework of animal rights activism. The corrective influence of feminism is valued because it emphasizes both the political importance of the collectivity and of emotional bonding. >Ecofeminism, >Posthumanism. 1. Nussbaum, Martha C. 2006. Frontiers of Justice. Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 2. Midgley, Mary. 1996. Utopias, Dolphins and Computers. Problems of Philosophical Plumbing. London and New York: Routledge. 3. Donovan, Josephine and Carol J. Adams (eds.) 1996. Beyond Animal Rights. A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals. New York: Continuum. 4. Donovan, Josephine and Carol J. Adams (eds.) 2007. The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press. 5. Adams, Carol. 1990. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A FeministVegetarian Critical Theory. New York: Continuum. 6. MacCormack, Patricia. 2012. Posthuman Ethics. London: Ashgate. 7. Plumwood, Val. 2003. Environmental Culture. London: Routledge._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Feminism Braidotti I Rosie Braidotti The Posthuman Cambridge, UK: Polity Press 2013 |
||
