Citation

Author Website

http://www.docsoc.com

Commentary Type

Invited Commentary

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Jonathan Birch, Animal sentience and the precautionary principle

Abstract

I detect at least two unspoken assumptions in Birch’s project, and I question, indeed, reject both of them. One is that welfare is the primary concern of animal ethics. I think liberation is. Birch’s other assumption is that the scientific investigation of animal sentience is key to promoting animal ethics. I think science is largely irrelevant to progress on this front and can even be counterproductive.

Author Biography

Joel Marks is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of New Haven and a Bioethics Center Scholar at Yale University. His main scholarly interest is theoretical and applied ethics. Both have come together in his thinking about animal ethics. He founded the Animal Ethics Study Group at Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics in 2008. http://www.docsoc.com

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1221