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The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals

by Paul Waldau. 285 pgs.

Contributors:

   Paul Waldau

Publisher:

   Oxford University Press

Place of Publication:

  New York  

Publication Year:

  2002

Subjects:

Speciesism--Religious Aspects--Buddhism, Speciesism--Religious Aspects, Animal Rights--Environmental Aspects, Animal Welfare--Moral And Ethical Aspects

	Abbreviations	xv
	Introduction	3
	I Religion and Speciesism
	1 Animals and Religious Traditions	11
	Religious Traditions	11
	Dominant Attitudes	13
	The Buddhist Tradition	15
	The Christian Tradition	17
	Religious Experience and Specific Claims about Animals	17
	2 Exclusion and the Concept of Speciesism	20
	The Anti-Speciesism Critique	20
	The Subsequent History of “Speciesism”	28
	Uses by Academic Philosophers	32
	A Working Definition	38
	3 Criticisms of Speciesism	40
	The Analogies to Racism and Sexism	40
	Bernard Williams: Prejudice, Persons, and Duties of Inquiry	42
	Midgley and Species Loyalty	47
	Wittgensteinians and “All That Natter about Speciesism”	52
	Synopsis of Observations	55
	II Animals and Religion
	4 Other Complex Animals: Missed Opportunities?	59
	Three Groups of Animals	59
	Why These Animals Provide an Important Focus	60
	Epistemological Challenges and Sociology of Knowledge	64
	Some Factual Realities: Other Great Apes	67
	Elephants	75
	Whales and Dolphins	80
	The Significance of Basic Facts about the Key Animals	85
	Descartes Was Wrong in Several Ways	87
	5 What Is an Animal?	88
	The Basic Problem	88
	The Negative Side of the Dualism “Humans and Animals”	94
	Other Aspects of Contemporary Discourse about Other     Animals	95
	What Is at Stake: The Possession of “Unique” Traits and     Differentiated Value	97
	Species, Essences, and Natural Kinds	100
	Recapitulation	110
	III Is There Speciesism in Buddhism?
	6 Other Animals in the Pali Canon	113
	Early Buddhist Generalizations about Living Things     and Other Animals	113
	The Overlap of Buddhism and the Key Animals	117
	Other Legend Collections	121
	The Vinaya Pi.taka: Connection amid Disconnection	123
	The Abhidhamma Pi.taka and Mapping Animal Existence	126
	The Digha-Nikãya and Majjhima-Nikãya	127
	The Sa.myutta-Nikãya and A”nguttara-Nikãya	130
	The Suttanipata and Udana of the Khuddaka-Nikãya	133
	The Psalms of the Early Buddhists	135
	Summary	136
	7 The Buddhist Understanding of Other Animals	137
	A Prima Facie Case: Buddhism Is Ethically Sensitive     to Other Animals	137
	Problematizing the Basic Continuity Claim	139
	The First Precept: Equivocations and Nonlethal Harms	142
	The High Profile of Other Animals in the Tradition	149
	Summary of Problems with the Prima Facie Case	152
	The Buddhist Tradition's General Understanding     of Other Animals	153
	The Argument That the Buddhist Tradition Is Speciesist	154
	IV Is There Speciesism in Christianity?
	8 Other Animals in the Christian Tradition	159
	The Overlap	159
	The Starting Point: Old Testament Views of Other Animals	160
	Earliest Views: The New Testament and the Mixed Cultural     Background	172
	The Early Centuries	178
	Augustine and Other Animals	191
	Augustine's Legacy	200
	9 The Christian Understanding of Other Animals	202
	Christian Talk “about” Other Animals: Dominion and     the Basic Division	202
	Other Animals “in and of Themselves”	208
	The Narrowing of Hebrew Concerns for Other Animals	213
	The Basic Christian Understanding of Other Animals	214
	The Argument That the Christian Tradition Has Been     Speciesist	215
	Conclusion	218
	Appendix 1 Transliteration, Orthography, and Italicization	219
	Appendix 2 Defined Terms	221
	Notes	223
	Bibliography	257
	Index	287

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