A brief review of Engel\u27s and Comstock\u27s The Moral Rights of Animal

Bernstein, Mark

English

DigitalCommons@CalPoly

286Between the SpecieSVolume 22, Issue 1http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/Fall 2018Review of The Moral Rights of Animalsed. Mylan Engel Jr. and Gary Lynn Comstock Lexington, 2016.Mark BernsteinPurdue UniversityMark Bernstein287http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/ Vol. 22, Issue 1This volume is a collection of 13 original essays celebrat-ing Tom Regan’s enormously influential work on animal rights. This anthology results from a conference at Regan’s home uni-versity, North Carolina State University, in April 2011. After an Introduction and very helpful Overview, the 14 essays are divided into three sections. Part 1: Theoretical Prospects and Challenges for Animal Rights consists of 5 essays: “The Case for Animal Rights”, by Regan himself, that serves as a concise, clear statement of his deontological defense of animal rights (i.e., the ‘rights view”), “Animal Rights for Libertarians”( Jeremy R. Garrett), “Do Animals Have Rights and Does it Matter If They Don’t (Mylan Engel Jr.), “Tom regan on “Kind” Arguments against Animal Rights and for Human Rights” (Nathan Nobis), and “Equality Flourishing, and the Problem of Predation’ (Anne Baril).Part II: Animal Rights and the Comparative Value of Lives also consists of 5 essays: “Do All Subjects of a Life Have an Equal Right to Life?: The Challenge of the Comparative Val-ue of Life (Aaron Simmons), “The Interspecies Killing Prob-lem” (Molly Gardner), “Respecting Rights-Holders” (Evelyn Pluhar), “Sujects-of-a-Life, the Argument from Risk, and the Significance of Self-Consciousness” (Alastair Norcross), and “La Mettrie’s Objection: Humans Act Like Animals” (Gary Comstock).Part III: Animal Rights in Practice consists of 4 essays: “Rights and Capabilities: Tom Regan and Martha Nussbaum on Animals (Ramona Ilea), “Vegetarianism in the Balance” (Scott D. Wilson), “The Benefit of Regan’s Doubt: Moral Cau-tion and the Ethics of Eating” (Robert Bass), and “A Moral License to Kill? Animal Rights and Hunting” (Jason Hanna)Mark Bernstein288http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/ Vol. 22, Issue 1There is a very brief, but poignant Epilogue by Jeff McMa-han that I highly recommend.Without exception, the essays are very accessible; I would think that any upper-level undergraduate would have no trou-ble understanding any essay. Regan’s opening essay suffices for providing the gist of his view, and many of the essays can be conceived as further articulations and criticisms of some of the implications of Regan’s ‘rights view’. Perhaps the most advanced essays are those of Nobis, Baril, and Gardner, with Engel’s essay providing the most detailed elucidation of Regan’s view. Norcross’s essay attempts to com-bine the best of Peter Singer- most of whose work on animals came from a preference utilitarian standpoint- and Regan, who has a self-avowed anti-utilitarian, deontological perspective. Ilea’s essay is another that attempts a marriage of sorts, but this time one that incorporates Regan’s ‘rights ‘view’ with Martha Nussbaum’s ‘capability approach’. This volume deserves a wide audience. For those who have ever reflected on the ethics of food and eating, questioning whether they are acting morally when feasting on the carcasses of killed animals, this book may help you decide. For those who ever wondered about the ethics of predation, musing how someone who advocated for rights for nonhuman animals can supply principled responses to our responsibilities regarding animals harming and killing other animals, this book is for you. For those who have seriously thought about the morality of either sustenance or recreational (‘sport’) hunting, this book is for you. And, finally, for those who believe that philosophi-cal work lacks practical significance, but who are open to being convinced otherwise, I heartily recommend these thoughtful Mark Bernstein289http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/ Vol. 22, Issue 1essays spawned by the work and life of a most intellectually honest and compassionate man.

Review of Engel\u27s and Comstock\u27s  The Moral Rights of Animals

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Review of Engel\u27s and Comstocks The Moral Rights of Animals

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