Animal rights

Four thematic areas – The Nature of Humans and Animals, Philosophy, Politics, Law and Society, and Religion and Culture – structure the contributions of the lecture series Animal Rights, organized by IAT Heidelberg and documented in this volume. Seventeen authors contribute from very different perspectives to a discussion whose subject matter indeed represents an interdisciplinary challenge, but also requires a broader societal discourse.

The volume combines the lectures from the international lecture series Animal Rights at Heidelberg University in the summer semester of 2006. Edited by the Interdisciplinary Working Group for Animal Ethics Heidelberg (IAT) with its current and former members Katharina Blesch, Alexandra Breunig, Stefan Buss, Guillaume Dondainas, Rainer Ebert, Florian Fruth, Nils Kessler, Matthias Müller, Uta Panten, Anette Reimelt, Bernd Schälling, Jürgen Schneele, Adriana Sixt-Sailer, Manja Unger, and Alexander Zehmisch, it continues the efforts begun with the lecture series to convey animal ethics research in an unbiased manner. The volume aims to enable readers to gain insight into the modern animal rights discourse from various angles.

Contributions were provided by:
Silke Bitz · Gieri Bolliger · Carl Cohen · Raymond Corbey · Eugen Drewermann · Mylan Engel Jr. ·
Antoine F. Goetschel · Helmut F. Kaplan · Eisenhart von Loeper · Jörg Luy · Renate Rastätter · Tom Regan ·
Kurt Remele · Hanna Rheinz · Peter S. Wenz · Markus Wild · Hanno Würbel.

Contents:

• Foreword

   

• I The Nature of Humans and Animals
  • Hanno Würbel: Biological Foundations for Ethical Animal Welfare
  • Markus Wild: How Are Animals? A Plea for Critical Anthropomorphism
  • Raymond Corbey: Humans, Apes, Ape-Men. On the History of the Idea of Human Exceptionalism
• II Philosophy
  • Tom Regan: The Animal Rights Debate
  • Carl Cohen: Do Animals Have Rights?
  • Mylan Engel, Jr.: Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, and Moral Integrity
  • Peter S. Wenz: Animal Rights in Social Context
  • Helmut F. Kaplan: Animal Liberation – Criminal Acts or Consistent Ethics?
• III Politics, Law and Society
  • Eisenhart von Loeper: Animal Rights – Developmental Dynamics and Conflicts Resolved in Practice
  • Antoine F. Goetschel and Gieri Bolliger: Animal Ethics and Animal Welfare Law – A Plea for Friendship
  • Jörg Luy: Animal Welfare Ethics from the Perspective of an Official Veterinarian
  • Silke Bitz: Ethical and Medical-Scientific Reasons for Animal Experiment-Free Research
  • Renate Rastätter: Animal Protection as a State Goal Between Aspiration and Political Implementation
• IV Religion and Culture
  • Hanna Rheinz: Kabbalah of Animals. Animal Rights in Judaism and Why They Trigger Collective Rejection to This Day
  • Kurt Remele: Between Apathy and Compassion. Religious Teachings from an Animal Ethical Perspective
  • Eugen Drewermann: The Rightlessness of Creatures in Christian Western Culture or: On an Important Exception
• Authors