Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility

by Martha C. Nussbaum

Overview

A “brilliant” (Chicago Review of Books), “elegantly written, and compelling” (National Review) new theory and call to action on animal rights, ethics, and law from the renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum.

Animals are in trouble all over the world. Whether through the cruelties of the factory meat industry, poaching and game hunting, habitat destruction, or neglect of the companion animals that people purport to love, animals suffer injustice and horrors at our hands every day.

The world needs an ethical awakening, a consciousness-raising movement of international proportions. In Justice for Animals, one of the world’s most renowned philosophers and humanists, Martha C. Nussbaum, provides “the most important book on animal ethics written to date” (Thomas I. White, author of In Defense of Dolphins).

From dolphins to crows, elephants to octopuses, Nussbaum examines the entire animal kingdom, showcasing the lives of animals with wonder, awe, and compassion to understand how we can create a world in which human beings are truly friends of animals, not exploiters or users. All animals should have a shot at flourishing in their own way. Humans have a collective duty to face and solve animal harm. An urgent call to action and a manual for change, Nussbaum’s groundbreaking theory directs politics and law to help us meet our ethical responsibilities as no book has done before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982102517
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/23/2024
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	166,751
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department and the Law School of the University of Chicago. She gave the 2016 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities and won the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy. The 2018 Berggruen Prize in Philosophy and Culture, and the 2020 Holberg Prize. These three prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards available in fields not eligible for a Nobel. She has written more than twenty-two books, including Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions; Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice; Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities; and The Monarchy of Fear.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

1 Brutality and Neglect: Injustice in Animal Lives 1

2 The Scala Naturae and the "So Like Us" Approach 19

3 The Utilitarians: Pleasure and Pain 40

4 Christine Korsgaard's Kantian Approach 57

5 The Capabilities Approach: Forms of Life and Respecting the Creatures Who Live Them 80

6 Sentience and Striving: A Working Boundary 118

7 The Harm of Death 154

8 Tragic Conflicts and How to Move Beyond Them 173

9 Animals Who Live with Us 193

10 The "Wild" and Human Responsibility 223

11 The Capabilities of Friendship 255

12 The Role of Law 279

Conclusion 311

Acknowledgments 319

Bibliography 321

Notes 333

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/24/2022

Animal rights can and should be protected, according to this lucid analysis from University of Chicago law professor Nussbaum (The Monarchy of Fear). “No non-human animal escapes human domination,” she writes, and, in fact, “much of the time, that domination inflicts wrongful injury on animals.” And while humans harming animals is nothing new, Nussbaum argues that such harm is currently inflicted on a much greater scale than ever, and that almost every human is culpable in polluting the planet. Moreover, scientific discoveries have established that animals are capable of feeling pain and have rich emotional lives and complex forms of social organization. Nussbaum reviews and dismisses prior frameworks for articulating the rights owed to animals—such as the Utilitarian approach (which takes into account primarily pleasure and pain, and is “too simple”) and the Kantian (which, in essence, suggests treating animals better in service of humans’ “own improvement”)—and puts forth her own theory called the “Capabilities Approach,” which asserts that “each sentient creature... should have the opportunity to flourish in the form of life characteristic for that creature.” As well, Nussbaum suggests a government-designated welfare agency be granted “for each type of animal.” This trenchant and masterful blend of political analysis, philosophical study, and call to action is a must-read. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

The most important book on animal ethics written to date, Justice for Animals is a brilliant and remarkably comprehensive exploration of the ethical issues connected with human treatment of nonhumans. A milestone in the field.”
—Thomas I. White, author of In Defense of Dolphins

“With urgent clarity, Martha Nussbaum explains why we must and how we can take responsibility for the multi-species world that is our reality. Justice For Animals is a celebration of the human potential for love and mutuality and a song of hope, as much as it is a steely-eyed analysis of our callous dominance of the nonhuman world.”
—Amy Linch, Penn State University

“Martha Nussbaum’s work has changed the humanities, but in this book her focus is startling, born of an ardent love for her late daughter and for all animals on Earth.”
—Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, Case Western Reserve University, and Senior Research Fellow, Earth System Governance Project

“Martha Nussbaum takes an honest look at how animals may survive in a human-dominated world, and lays out a plan of action to help creatures great and small in important and critical ways.”
—Dr. Denise Herzing, Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project

“A provocative book. Nussbaum lays out a foundation for the political rights of animalsand asks what creating a world where animals could be our friends would look like. An essential read for anyone interested in what we owe to our fellow creatures.”
—Nicolas Delon, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, New College of Florida

“The morality of the human-animal relation urgently needs updating. We can’t wish for a more insightful and compassionate guide than philosopher Martha Nussbaum. She urges us to look beyond pain and pleasure and to consider all animals, not just those that resemble us. Each species’ specific needs and capabilities offer a guide of how they should be treated.”
—Frans de Waal, author of Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

"A thought-provoking guide to ethical coexistence with the diverse creatures of Earth."
—Kirkus Reviews

"This trenchant and masterful blend of political analysis, philosophical study, and call to action is a must-read.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Here, as in other works, her arguments are thorough, elegantly written, and compelling — so finely tuned that Aristotle himself would need to be in top form to engage her on the subject. [...] Sure to become a classic of ethics.”
—Matthew Scully, National Review

“Brilliant and accessible work. [...] All readers, not only readers already committed to animal rights, ought to read Nussbaum’s new book.”
—Ross Collin, Chicago Review of Books

“Nussbaum’s writing is energetic and direct, full of stories and anecdotes. The book is pleasingly constructive [...] it is a virtue of this book that the mind of the author is so clearly on display.”
—Dale Jamieson, Science

From the Publisher

A brilliant and remarkably comprehensive exploration of the ethical issues connected with human treatment of nonhumans. A milestone in the field.”

author of In Defense of Dolphins Thomas I. White

2022-09-17
The acclaimed moral philosopher advances a theory of justice that enables animals to lead empowered, safe, and dignified lives.

According to Nussbaum, professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago and author of more than 20 books, humans and animals are moral equivalents and, as sentient beings, merit equal justice. This means substantial opportunities for choice and action in the areas of their lives that they value along with protection from injustices that wrongfully impede a flourishing existence. The latter is particularly critical given the cruelty, deprivation, and neglect that animals suffer. At the core of the argument is her previously developed Capabilities Approach, which valorizes a person’s (and, now, an individual animal’s) capacity to act and learn within enabling environments. She considers this theory superior to a “so like us” approach, which values animals for approximating human attributes such as speech but lacks “wonder at the diversity of nature [and] love of its many distinctive forms”; a utilitarianism that focuses on a calculus of pleasure and pain but ignores, for example, the sociability of animals; and a Kantian perspective that treats all creatures as ends rather than means while denying animals moral capacity. However, only beings that are intelligent, sentient, and striving (i.e., active in pursuing their goals) qualify for justice, hence omitting crustaceans, coral, and (maybe) bees. The robustness of Nussbaum’s approach becomes clear as she reflects on how we should think about animal death; “tragic dilemmas” that pit humans against animals, as in medical experimentation; companion animals; and animal-human friendships. Central to attaining animal justice are legal supports that confer rights on animals and give them standing in the courts. The author is particularly insightful on “four areas of moral unease: medical experimentation, meat eating, questions raised by the hunting practices of threatened traditional cultures, and, finally, larger and more general conflicts over space and resources.”

A thought-provoking guide to ethical coexistence with the diverse creatures of Earth.

Kirkus Reviews