A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Animal Rights and Issues

  • Of wolf and man

    Thanks to Jeremy for tipping me off to this review by John Gray of philosopher Mark Rowland’s new book The Philosopher and the Wolf. Rowlands lived with a wolf he adopted for many years and learned lessons from him about what it meant to be happy and to be human. He also makes the provocative Read more

  • Ape revolt!

    This piece is both incredible and infuriating. Incredible because it describes in detail how intelligent the orangutans are in devising increasingly sophisticated ways to escape from their jailers (oops-“keepers”) at the San Diego Zoo. Infuriating, well, because such obviously intelligent and social creatures are being held captive against their demonstrated preferences. Really, what is the Read more

  • Carter on Singer

    Joe Carter is, I think, too hard on Peter Singer in this post. Singer is wrong about a lot of stuff–his views on disability and on bioethics in particular. But as much as anyone he deserves credit for bringing the abuses of animals in factory farms to public attention, not to mention his work on Read more

  • Mill, animals, and liberalism

    Gaius asks whether a liberal who traces her intellectual lineage to J.S. Mill–i.e. who sees the purpose of politics as permitting the widest possible scope for human liberty consistent with the liberty of others–can consistently be in favor of laws for preventing cruelty to animals or protecting the environment: how [did] liberals, historically, either politically Read more

  • Gourmands, aesthetics, and ethics

    If more proof was needed that I’m not hip, I’m sorry to say that I never read David Foster Wallace–and indeed only vaguely knew who he was–before his suicide this past September. But I recently came across this incredible piece of his published in 2004 in Gourmet magazine. Incredible not least because it was actually Read more

  • Of Palin and poultry

    I’m with Jim Henley – there’s nothing particularly disturbing about this Sarah Palin interview at a turkey farm (well, except insofar as Sarah Palin is inherently disturbing). Where exactly do people think Thanksgiving turkeys come from? Jim’s also right that the farm where the interview takes place is, by all appearances, far more humane than, Read more

  • Tom Turkey in hell

    Surprise! When you reduce animals to the status of things, they tend to get treated like…things. I don’t want to get all vegetarian self-righteous here, but here’s a thought. Thanksgiving is, among other things, about, well, giving thanks to the Author of our being. And surely part of that thanks-giving is treating that which we Read more

  • Beyond Prejudice 4

    In the previous posts we saw Pluhar make a two-step argument for moral rights. First, she argued that any agent, reflecting on the nature of her own agency, must advocate for herself basic rights to freedom and well-being, simply because she is a purposive agent. Second, Pluhar contends that the principles of consistency and universalizability Read more

  • Beyond Prejudice 3

    If, following Pluhar, we agree that any reflective agent has reason to affirm that she has basic rights to freedom and well-being, why should that agent extend those rights to others? In other words, must the reflective agent also be a moral agent? To start, let’s review why Pluhar (following Gerwith) thinks that any reflective Read more

  • Beyond Prejudice 2

    I want to zero in on what I think would be the most controversial steps in Evelyn Pluhar’s argument for rights (both for human and nonhuman animals). In this post I’ll focus on the first: the move from an agent affirming her own goals and desires to affirming a right to freedom and well-being necessary Read more