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Love and Speciesism

Boyer, Kurtis LU (2014) Manchester Centre for Political Theory, Annual Workshops
Abstract
The first part of the essay attempts to advance the idea that animals can, like humans, become subjects of genuine bonds of attachment. The second part of the essay examines how interventions to protect, care for, or save animals, interface with various forms of alterity - related to what socially and physiologically constitutes ‘being human’ and ‘being animal’.This essay provides a frame for a discussion on whether these innate and constructed differences of being imply that the means to which we currently save, love, and protect animals in our personal relations, and through our polices, are at inherent risk of maintaining or reconstituting the same set of power relations they are supposedly obverse to. Illustrations are provided by the... (More)
The first part of the essay attempts to advance the idea that animals can, like humans, become subjects of genuine bonds of attachment. The second part of the essay examines how interventions to protect, care for, or save animals, interface with various forms of alterity - related to what socially and physiologically constitutes ‘being human’ and ‘being animal’.This essay provides a frame for a discussion on whether these innate and constructed differences of being imply that the means to which we currently save, love, and protect animals in our personal relations, and through our polices, are at inherent risk of maintaining or reconstituting the same set of power relations they are supposedly obverse to. Illustrations are provided by the advancement towards human rights for Apes in Spain, as well as the increasing use of pharmaceutical medication to treat mental illness in pets. The most general aim of this paper is to broaden the interface between the discussions on empathy, moral inclusion, and a political theory of animal rights. In the most broadest sense, the contribution made here aims to provide a conceptual framework that seeks to understand the limits to, or contractions of, empathy towards animals, by exploring the ways in which our attachment is formed and becomes unbound. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
love, speciesism, Empathy
pages
37 pages
conference name
Manchester Centre for Political Theory, Annual Workshops
conference location
Manchester, United Kingdom
conference dates
2014-09-08 - 2014-09-10
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6607a612-9d74-4f67-ba25-8419b45958c0 (old id 8863236)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 13:54:41
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:17:07
@misc{6607a612-9d74-4f67-ba25-8419b45958c0,
  abstract     = {{The first part of the essay attempts to advance the idea that animals can, like humans, become subjects of genuine bonds of attachment. The second part of the essay examines how interventions to protect, care for, or save animals, interface with various forms of alterity - related to what socially and physiologically constitutes ‘being human’ and ‘being animal’.This essay provides a frame for a discussion on whether these innate and constructed differences of being imply that the means to which we currently save, love, and protect animals in our personal relations, and through our polices, are at inherent risk of maintaining or reconstituting the same set of power relations they are supposedly obverse to. Illustrations are provided by the advancement towards human rights for Apes in Spain, as well as the increasing use of pharmaceutical medication to treat mental illness in pets. The most general aim of this paper is to broaden the interface between the discussions on empathy, moral inclusion, and a political theory of animal rights. In the most broadest sense, the contribution made here aims to provide a conceptual framework that seeks to understand the limits to, or contractions of, empathy towards animals, by exploring the ways in which our attachment is formed and becomes unbound.}},
  author       = {{Boyer, Kurtis}},
  keywords     = {{love; speciesism; Empathy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Love and Speciesism}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}