This lecture will provide an introduction to the ethical theories regarding the ‘moral status’ of non human animals. The lecture will provide a short history of the development of animal ethics within modern philosophical traditions, including a summary of the movement’s leading thinkers and groups.

Slides available here

Essential readings
Singer, P. (1973) ‘Animal Liberation’, New York Review of Books 20(5). [available here]
Regan, T. (2008), The Case for Animal Rights (excerpts), from The Animal Ethics Reader (2nd Ed.) Armstrong, S. & Botzler, R. (Ed.), Abingdon: Routledge, pp.19-25. [available here]

Further Reading
Barlian, Y. M. (2004). ‘Speciesism as a Precondition to Justice’, Politics and the Life Sciences 23(1): 22–33. [available here]
Davis, S. L. (2003) ‘The Least Harm Principle May Require that Humans Consume a Diet Containing Large Herbivores, Not a Vegan Diet’, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 16: 387–394. [available here]
Low, P. (et al.) (2012), ‘The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’, July 7, 2012 (at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals, at Churchill College, University of Cambridge).
Naess, A. (1991) ‘Should We Try To Relieve Clear Cases of Extreme Suffering in Nature?’, Pan Ecology 6.1. [available here]
Nozick, R. (1999) ‘Constraints and Animals’ from Anarchy State, and Utopia. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.35-42. [available here]
Ryder, R. (2006) ‘Speciesism in the Laboratory’, from Singer, P. In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.87-103. [available here]