Animals, Rights and Reason in Plutarch and Modern Ethics »

Plutarch is virtually unique in surviving classical authors in arguing that animals are rational and sentient, and in concluding that human beings must take notice of their interests. Stephen Newmyer explores Plutarch's three animal-related treatises, as well as passages from his other ethical treatises, which argue that non-human animals are rational and therefore deserve to fall within the sphere of human moral concern. Newmyer shows that some of the arguments Plutarch raises strikingly foreshadow those found in the works of such prominent animal rights philosophers as Peter Singer and Tom Regan in maintaining that non-human animals are the sorts of creatures that have intellectual qualities that cause them to be proper objects of man's concern, and have interests and desires that entitle them to respect from their human counterparts. This volume is groundbreaking in viewing Plutarch's views not only in the context of ancient philosophical and ethical thought, but in its place, generally overlooked, in the history of speculation on human-animal relations, and in pointing out how remarkably Plutarch differs from such predominantly anti-animal thinkers as the Stoics.

INTRODUCTION:
The Ancients and the Moderns

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST:
The Search for Animal Rationality

JUST BEASTS:
Animal Morality and Human Justice

FEELING BEASTLY:
Pain, Pleasure, and the Animal Estate

BEAUTY IN THE BEAST:
Cooperation, Altruism, and Philanthropy among Animals

ANIMAL APPETITES:
Vegetarianism and Human Morality

VII. CONCLUSION