Animals, Ethics, and Language

With an ever-growing body of evidence on the links between different oppressions, never have the debates in Critical Animal Studies surrounding intersectionality in relation to animal ethics been more important. In particular, the arguments related to anthropomorphic attributes of mentality to other than humans promise to provide fruitful new ground for re-assessing human-animal relations. This book maps the central debates surrounding anthropomorphism in relation to our descriptions of animals, their lives, animal mentality, and meaningful communication in the nonhuman world. Rebekah Humphreys synthesizes the work of critical animal theorists, philosophers, and cognitive ethologists, and provides a critical account of how the debates concerning anthropomorphism play a key role in a proper understanding of animal ethics.

1. Introduction: Anthropomorphism and Animal Ethics.- 2. Anthropomorphous Animals and Philosophy.- 3. Moral Standing and Human Exceptionalism.- 4. Critical Anthropomorphism.- 5. Language and ‘Moral Anthropomorphism’.- 6. Going Home: Returning from Posthumanism via a Defence of Identity as Continuity.- 7. The Application of Key Concepts.