Without a Tear: Our Tragic Relationship with Animals

In Without a Tear Mark H. Bernstein begins with one of our most common and cherished moral beliefs: that it is wrong to intentionally and gratuitously inflict harm on the innocent. Over the course of the book, he shows how this apparently innocuous commitment requires that we drastically revise many of our most common practices involving nonhuman animals.

Most people who write about our ethical obligations concerning animals base their arguments on emotional appeals or contentious philosop...