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Full download Subhuman - The Moral Psychology of Human Attitudes to Animals T.J. Kasperbauer file pdf all chapter on 2024
Full download Subhuman - The Moral Psychology of Human Attitudes to Animals T.J. Kasperbauer file pdf all chapter on 2024
Full download Subhuman - The Moral Psychology of Human Attitudes to Animals T.J. Kasperbauer file pdf all chapter on 2024
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SUBHUM AN
SUBHUM AN
T. J. Kasperbauer
1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
For the bonobos of Iowa, who first made me
wonder what it means to be human.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction 1
2. Evolved Attitudes to Animals 13
3. Dehumanizing Animals 39
4. Dehumanization and Mentalizing Animals 63
5. Diagnosing Moral Failures 85
6. Psychological Plausibility for Animal Ethics 113
7. Animals and the Expanding Moral Circle 138
8. Managing Moral Psychology for Animal Ethics 173
Acknowledgments 197
References 199
Index 229
SUBHUM AN
Chapter 1
Introduction
1
S u b human
Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). For instance, to justify cruel treatment the
Nazis compared Jews to rats, and black slaves in America were compared
to apes. However, many of the processes used on human beings to make
them seem unworthy of dignity and respect are also used on animals. The
processes at work when we demean other human beings by comparing
them to animals are also at work in our everyday evaluations of animals.
Understanding the influence of dehumanization on our attitudes
toward animals is important for making sense of apparent contradictions
in human–animal relationships. Many of the animals we love become
targets of abuse, and many that we fear are nonetheless revered and hold
great cultural importance. We also spend significant resources in caring
for animals just to eat them. Why is this? Are we just confused? Or cruel?
Dehumanization research offers an explanation that is not rooted in inher-
ent kindness or cruelty, nor stupidity or confusion. Rather, dehumaniza-
tion suggests that we are fundamentally motivated to compare ourselves
to animals and find a way to view ourselves as superior.
By “animal” in this book I am referring broadly to any member of the
kingdom Animalia. Many different types of animals possess properties
capable of triggering a dehumanization response. Some animals, however,
are more relevant than others to the psychological processes I aim to illumi-
nate. Understanding moral attitudes toward animals is strongly dependent
on people’s concepts about animals, and concepts are notoriously varied
and resistant to definitions (Prinz, 2002; Machery, 2009). For instance, in
chapter 2, I discuss animals that pose threats as predators and as sources
of disease, but some animals are seen as more threatening in these respects
than others. So although I aim to capture any member of Animalia in my
account, some animals better characterize dehumanization attitudes than
others. As we go along, I will make it clear which animals I have in mind
and how I envision their role in human moral psychology.
The idea that we use non-humans for comparative purposes is not
new. Within anthropology, for instance, this comparative relationship
is the standard way of conceptualizing human attitudes toward animals.
Many draw from Lévi-Strauss’ (1963) observation that animals are “good
to think with.” This idea is also not new to philosophy. Dennis Des Chene
(2006), for instance, characterizes the concept “animal” in the history
of philosophy as “charged not only with designating a class of creatures,
2
I n t roduc t ion
real and imagined, but also with supplying a contrast case to the human”
(p. 216). This aptly describes the phenomenon explored throughout
this book.
My primary source, however, is recent research in social psychol-
ogy, where interest in human–animal relations has been steadily increas-
ing (Amiot & Bastian, 2015; Herzog, 2010). Though psychologists have
begun investigating the theoretical foundations of dehumanization in
greater detail (Bain, Vaes, & Leyens, 2014), relatively little attention has
been paid to the role of animals. And no philosophers have contributed to
theoretical work in this area. My aim is to fill this gap in the psychological
and philosophical literature on dehumanization and help make sense of
our occasionally puzzling attitudes toward animals.
3
S u b human
4
I n t roduc t ion
5
S u b human
6
I n t roduc t ion
1.2 ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF
HUMAN–A NIMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Most of this book will be focused on uncovering how people think about
animals, but I will also explain how we should think about and treat ani-
mals. These two matters are not entirely independent of one another
because the psychology of human attitudes to animals has implications
for our treatment of them. Chapters 6–8 lay out how we should think
about ethical issues concerning animals, given the psychological details
provided in chapters 2–5.
Using empirical moral psychology to inform ethical issues is an increas-
ingly popular approach in philosophy. It is less common among those who
focus specifically on animal ethics, however. Recent advances in empirical
moral psychology are mostly absent from prominent discussions of, for
7
S u b human
8
I n t roduc t ion
a moral duty, why does it matter what I say about human beings’ capacity
to realize that duty? For instance, suppose I claim that our highest moral
duty is to increase the amount of pleasure and decrease the amount of pain
in the world. And suppose I derive from this that our current treatment of
non-human animals must change dramatically. Assuming these claims are
right and the reasoning sound, what relevance is whatever moral psychol-
ogy that follows? For instance, why should it matter if people are unmoved
by the pain felt by animals?
Of course it is true that descriptive facts do not directly translate into
normative prescriptions. But they do have implications for normative
prescriptions, as we will see. Normative ethics should take more seriously
the third-person perspective. It should ask, What ought people do, in gen-
eral? Numerous criticisms have been put forth in recent years suggesting
that many mainstream ethical theories are working with an inaccurate
conception of human psychology (e.g., Doris, 2002; Prinz, 2007). These
criticisms have, as a consequence, called into question the utility of the
first-person approach, as well as empirically uninformed third-person per-
spectives. First-person ethics appears to serve as a guide only by assuming
a significantly uniform, and substantially inaccurate, human psychological
profile. Similar problems arise when third-person ethics takes psychologi-
cal facts for granted. The answers ethicists provide fail to sufficiently gen-
eralize to other human beings.
Rather than ask what individuals should do, ethics should ask what
psychologically similar groups of human beings should do. Statistical
regularities uncovered by cognitive scientists illuminate commonalities
in thinking styles, personality traits, and other aspects of our psychologi-
cal profiles. Understanding these statistical regularities helps ensure that
ethical prescriptions generalize beyond one’s own perspective while also
making sure they don’t overgeneralize, to psychological profiles that are
very different from one’s own. An empirically informed third-person eth-
ics can provide recommendations that take into account what people are
capable of and what actions their psychological profiles are best suited for,
while still providing substantial advice about what they ought to do. This
may ultimately culminate in an individual (or individuals) asking the first-
person question, What ought I do? But the general framework for ethi-
cal decision-making is done in accordance with broader patterns existing
9
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