THIS book titled Animal Liberation and Enviromental Ethics A Philosophical Interpretation is based upon my doctoral thesis submitted to the Visva-Bharati University. Though it has followed the major framework of the doctoral thesis, but has incorporated many new dimensions and thoughts in different aspects of environmental philosophy and animal rights supplemented by innovative discussions on vegetarianism, coupled with a deep and intense reflection on various ways of exploiting animals. The discussion also includes a detailed history of human anthropocentric culture, which, faces a great challenge amidst new non-speciesist thinking. The book hopes to initiate man in the art of making self-inquiry, reminding him that non-human creatures and the environment do play a significant role in sustaining human life and there are values in the world of non-humans; we, therefore, need to go beyond traditional anthropocentricity and widen the moral boundary to include animal species, the living organisms and the entire biosphere.
I would like to express my profound gratitude and indebted-ness to my respected supervisor, Dr Asha Mukherjee, Former Professor in Philosophy, Visva-Bharati, and also an outstanding scholar and a renowned teacher of international repute who gave me immense encouragement, during the period when I was pursuing my research work.
My indebtedness is also to all the members of the library of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Lucknow for providing valuable materials on my demand on several occasions. I also express my thankfulness to all the staff members of the National Library, Kolkata.
I would like to thank my father late Dr Amal Chatterjee, who constantly guided me, encouraged me and without his unwavering support over the past years, it would have been impossible for me to complete the book.
My profound gratitude goes to my mother Mrs Soma Chatterjee for her generosity, inspiration which has been truly rewarding.
I also value the love and emotional assistance offered by my daughter Shrubabati for being there with me, and providing wise counsel as I worked for my this book.
At the outset, I also express my heartiest gratitude to Mr Debasish Chowdhury and Mr Prodip Barui for typing the initial manuscript.
I also share my profound respect to Mr Rajendra Agarwal of Suryodaya Books for undertaking this research for publishing with almost care.
THE world in which we live is confronted with serious problems - both individually and as a society - and standing in the face of its arising crisis it would be appropriate to reflect on what we are doing and why? To address this problem and to resolve its multidimensional crisis which emerges from the idea of human supremacy, it seems essential to make an enquiry at a very fundamental level, and critically examine the basic concepts and ideas, and their wider implications on our everyday life. In fact, concern for the other beings of the world will help to develop a more embracing and comprehensive ethical system which will suggest that humans are not as rational as they used to think and non-human animals are not as irrational as tradition used to think about them. This foundational and reflective inquiry seems essential in the present context since it will equip us to engage in open dialogues with others and clarify notions about some perennial philosophical questions, concerning human nature and significance of values in life that have remained a concern for great thinkers. This venture will hopefully help us to overcome the limitations of the traditional anthropocentric morality which has been predominantly man-centric and simultaneously make us able to explain and revise our conclusions as our basic beliefs and logic are found faulty, by proposing the prospects of an alternative biocentric morality.
In this journey, a historical survey of the mainstream Western thinkers and their opinions towards others, more particularly towards animals, will be focused. We shall here examine how Western anthropocentrism, deeply rooted in Judaism and ancient Greek civilization, finally got fruition in Christianity and are followed by the eminent thinkers of the West. It will also try to assert that ill-treatment towards these creatures still continues and our traditional anthropocentric attitude compulsorily leads us to treat animals for food, as objects of different scientific experiments, are regularly killed and dissected used for hunting either for sports or for selling different parts of their body to earn lucrative profits, captured from their natural habitats and confined in zoos for our entertainment, education and research, and they are sacrificed in various religious and sacrificial rites. Fortunately, a few exceptional thinkers showed enough courage to challenge this classical anthropocentric tradition and their different arguments show the narrowness and unjustifiability of anthropocentric tradition. Moreover, their plea in favour of extending moral horizons of man beyond humans will be studied in detail. Such arguments, in favour of a new morality, we shall see, have faced serious criticisms from the speciesist corners who continue to claim that human lives are more valuable because humans only have moral standing, and are the members of the moral community. In fact, to these philosophers, humans have more complex lives, are critically self-aware, are able to manipulate complex concepts, can use language, have capacity to reflect, and can make plans and accept responsibility for one's action.
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