Describing Animals

Animals are increasingly being recognized as a serious subject of academic thought.

This is shown by the volume "Tiere beschreiben" (Describing Animals) edited by Andreas Brenner. The contributions approach their topic, the attempt to describe animals in a way relevant to the human-animal relationship, from different perspectives and in different contexts.

Birgit Mütherich and Monica Libell address the historical human-animal relationship. Birgit Mütherich focuses on the motif of the foreign and the own in her introductory contribution, and Monica Libell on the role of dogs in the history of vivisection - and related to that, the life and work of Ernst Grysanowski.

Andreas Brenner and Hermann Schmitz undertake a phenomenological approach to their subject with the contributions "Tierethik als Ethik der Wahrnehmung" (Animal Ethics as Ethics of Perception) and "Wie Tiere sind" (How Animals Are).

Dietmar von der Pfordten, Konrad Ott, and Norbert Brieskorn deal with political-legal aspects of the human-animal relationship: "Tierwürde nach Analogie der Menschenrechte" (Animal Dignity by Analogy to Human Rights), "Zum Verhältnis von Tier- und Naturschutz" (On the Relationship Between Animal and Nature Protection), "Menschenrechte und Tierrechte" (Human Rights and Animal Rights).

Ethical questions are addressed in the contributions by Angelika Krebs, Jean-Claude Wolf, Dagmar Borchers, and Andreas Flury: What role does language play in moral consideration? Can there be such a thing as interspecies impartiality? What does virtue ethics achieve for the cause of animals? and: Can the concept of dignity also be applied to animals and plants?

The animal in literature, art, and music are the topics of the three contributions by Hans-Dieter Bahr, Marlene Baum, and Marcel Dobberstein, which conclude the volume.

(Tierrechte - Menschenpflichten; Vol. 9)

Andreas Brenner (Ed.)

Publisher: Harald Fischer, Erlangen

ISBN 3-89131-408-6