Three Editions of Angus Taylor's "Animals and Ethics"

Magpies, Monkeys, and Morals : What Philosophers Say About Animal Liberation
by Angus Taylor
To what extent can animals be regarded as part of the moral community? To what extent, if at all, do they have moral rights? Are we wrong to eat them or to hunt them? Is the use of animals for scientific research justified? And can the ideas behind animal liberation be squared with those of the environmental movement?



This is the first book to provide a thorough and reasonably impartial explication of the arguments put forward on all these issues. It is Taylor's strong belief that, whatever our own views on these contentious issues may be, we benefit by exploring them more thoroughly, and also by understanding and evaluating the arguments of those who may disagree with us. He traces the background of these debates from Aristotle to Darwin, and he provides fair-minded commentaries on the positions of such influential contemporary philosophers as Peter Singer, Tom Regan, R.G. Frey, and Peter Carruthers

Animals and ethics: an overview of the philosophical debate
by Angus Taylor
To what extent can animals be regarded as part of the moral community? To what extent, if at all, do they have moral rights? Are we wrong to eat them or to hunt them? Is the use of animals for scientific research justified? And can the ideas behind animal liberation be squared with those of the environmental movement? It is Taylor's strong belief that, whatever our own views on these contentious issues may be, we benefit by exploring them more thoroughly, and also by understanding and evaluating arguments of those who may disagree with us. He traces the background of these debates from Aristotle to Darwin, and he provides fair-minded commentaries on the positions of contemporary philosophers Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Nel Noddings, Mary Anne Warren, J. Baird Callicott, and numerous others, with ethical theories ranging from utilitarianism to eco-feminism.

A previous edition of this book appeared under the title Magpies, Monkeys, and Morals. The new edition has been updated throughout. Substantial new material has been added to the text, including discussions of virtue ethics and Rawlsian contractarianism. The bibliography has been significantly enlarged and now includes more than five hundred entries.

Animals and Ethics: an overview of the philosophical debate (Third Edition)
by Angus Taylor

Can animals be regarded as part of the moral community? To what extent, if at all, do they have moral rights? Are we wrong to eat them, hunt them, or use them for scientific research? Can animal liberation be squared with the environmental movement? Taylor traces the background of these debates from Aristotle to Darwin and sets out the views of numerous contemporary philosophers - including Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Mary Anne Warren, J. Baird Callicott, and Martha Nussbaum - with ethical theories ranging from utilitarianism to eco-feminism. The new edition also includes provocative quotations from some of the major writers in the field. As the final chapter insists, animal ethics is more than just an "academic" question: it is intimately connected both to our understanding of what it means to be human and to pressing current issues such as food shortages, environmental degradation, and climate change.

"This book is a critically nuanced and meticulous assessment of the philosophical underpinnings of our ethical consideration of non-human animals. The third edition of Angus Taylor's Animals & Ethics not only provides students and the general public with a cogent introduction to the controversial issue of animal liberation but also serves as an invaluable reference work for students with the impressive inclusion of an extensively updated bibliography comprising data from hundreds of relevant publications on the moral status of animals." -- Jodey Castricano, University of British Columbia, Okanagan