Do animals hold consciousness, or do they simply exist through thoughtless instinctual responses? In today's episode of
Vegan Talk we explore this question, taking a look at some of the various beliefs and attitudes surrounding animal consciousness, as well as how those beliefs often play a significant role in how animals are treated.
Sources:
Gary Steiner is an
American moral philosopher, and the
John Howard Harris Professor of
Philosophy at
Bucknell University. Steiner has published two books focusing on the moral status of animals, offering a historical exploration into the beliefs and attitudes surrounding animals in
Western Philosophy.
-Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: The
Moral Status of
Animals in the
History of Western Philosophy.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anthropocentrism-and-its-discontents-gary-steiner/1112053366?ean=9780822961192
-Animals and the Moral
Community:
Mental Life, Moral Status, and
Kinship
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animals-and-the-moral-community-gary-steiner/1101966552?ean=9780231142342
Another note worthy book in regards to the history of cultural attitudes towards animals is Rob Boddice's “
A History of
Attitudes and Behaviors
Toward Animals in Eighteenth-and
Nineteenth Century Britain: Anthropocenterism and the
Emergence of
Animals”.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-history-of-attitudes-and-behaviours-toward-animals-in-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century-britain-rob-boddice/1117933528?ean=9780773449039
Chapters 17 and 18 of
Margo DeMello's “Animals and
Society:
An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies” focus on animal behavior studies and ethology, as well as the moral status of animals.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animals-and-society-margo-demello/1111428774?ean=9780231152952
Sue Savege-Rumbaugh who does research with
Kanzi, who I address in this video, published a document in the
Journal of Applied
Animal Welfare Science in
2007 called “Welfare of
Apes in
Captive Environments: Comments on, and by, a Specific
Group of Apes.” You can read it below.
https://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/684_welfareofapesincaptiveenv
.pdf
Peter Singer is an
Australian moral philosopher, currently the
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at
Princeton University. In
1975 he published his now classic groundbreaking book “
Animal Liberation”, a must read for anyone interested in animal ethics, rights, and liberation.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/animal-liberation-peter-singer/1111455023?ean=9780061711305
Peter Singer also published paper called "Speciesisim and Moral Status" that drew focus on cognitive capacity and moral value. The paper brings attention to the fact that not all human's are neurologically typical, some have profound intellectual disabilities, and that this needs to be considered in the argument of cognitive capacity and value.
Read it below.
http://www.oswego.edu/~delancey/
Singer.pdf
Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the
University of Colorado is one of the pioneering cognitive ethologists in the
United States. In
2013 he published an article in
Live Science, declaring it is time that animal sentience be recognized as a proven fact. Read it below.
http://www.livescience.com/39481-time-to-declare-animal-sentience
.html
Note: I do not use
Wikipedia as a source for my research, that said, below are a few links that provide brief summaries on some of the individual animals that I address in this video. I did not use these links in my research.
I mentioned a dog that waited at a train station for his dead caretaker to return.
That dog's name was
Hachiko. You can read about him below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D
I also share a video of a cat saving a little boy from a dog attack. For those skeptical of that video's authenticity, the cat's name is
Tara. You can read more below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(cat)
- published: 30 Oct 2015
- views: 479