
Can Animals Be Persons?
Mark Rowlands(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 27. June 2019
Book
Hardback
228 pages
978-0-19-084603-9 (ISBN)
Description
Can animals be persons? To this question, scientific and philosophical consensus has taken the form of a resounding, 'No!' In this book, Mark Rowlands disagrees. Not only can animals be persons, many of them probably are. Taking, as his starting point, John Locke's classic definition of a person, as "a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself the same thinking thing, in different times and places," Rowlands argues that many animals can satisfy all of these conditions. A person is an individual in which four features coalesce: consciousness, rationality, self-awareness and other-awareness, and many animals are such individuals.
Consciousness--something that is like to have an experience--is widely distributed through the animal kingdom. Many animals are capable of both causal and logical reasoning. Many animals are also self-aware, since a form of self-awareness is essentially built into the possession of conscious experience. And some animals are capable of a kind of awareness of the minds of others, quite independently of whether they possess a theory of mind. This is not just a book about animals, however.
As well as being fascinating in their own right, animals, as Claude Levi-Strauss once put it, are "good to think." In this seamless interweaving of the empirical study of animal minds with philosophy and its history, this book makes a powerful case for the idea that reflection on animals allows us to better understand each of these four pillars of personhood, and so illuminates what means for any individual--animal or human--to be conscious, rational, self- and other-aware.
Consciousness--something that is like to have an experience--is widely distributed through the animal kingdom. Many animals are capable of both causal and logical reasoning. Many animals are also self-aware, since a form of self-awareness is essentially built into the possession of conscious experience. And some animals are capable of a kind of awareness of the minds of others, quite independently of whether they possess a theory of mind. This is not just a book about animals, however.
As well as being fascinating in their own right, animals, as Claude Levi-Strauss once put it, are "good to think." In this seamless interweaving of the empirical study of animal minds with philosophy and its history, this book makes a powerful case for the idea that reflection on animals allows us to better understand each of these four pillars of personhood, and so illuminates what means for any individual--animal or human--to be conscious, rational, self- and other-aware.
Reviews / Votes
[The book] is a highly innovative and valuable contribution to the debate. * Fayna Fuentes Lopez, Metapsychology * Rowlands proposes a novel approach to a timely question about the nature of persons and the metaphysical status of nonhuman animals. For anyone interested in the current international legal debates about animal personhood, scientific debates about metacognition and social cognition, and philosophical debates about rationality and consciousness, this book is essential reading. Rowlands grounds these debates by synthesizing philosophical work on the nature of mind and persons with cutting edge research in the science of animal cognition in a way that is accessible to experts and nonexperts alike. * Kristin Andrews, York Research Chair in Animal Minds, York University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
511 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-084603-9 (9780190846039)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Mark Rowlands
Can Animals Be Persons?
E-Book
04/2019
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download

Mark Rowlands
Can Animals Be Persons?
E-Book
04/2019
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€16.49
Available for download
Person
Mark Rowlands is Professor Philosophy at the University of Miami. He received a D.Phil. from Oxford University. He has published nineteen books, including his previous books with OUP, Can Animals be Moral? and Memory and the Self.
Content
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Animals as Persons: The Very Idea
Chapter 2: The Ghost of Clever Hans
Chapter 3: Consciousness in Animals
Chapter 4: Tracking Belief
Chapter 5: Rational Animals
Chapter 6: Beyond the Looking Glass
Chapter 7: Pre-Intentional Awareness of Self
Chapter 8: In Different Times and Places
Chapter 9: Self-Awareness and Persons
Chapter 10: Other Awareness: Mindreading and Shame
Chapter 11: Animals as Persons and Why It Matters
Chapter 1: Animals as Persons: The Very Idea
Chapter 2: The Ghost of Clever Hans
Chapter 3: Consciousness in Animals
Chapter 4: Tracking Belief
Chapter 5: Rational Animals
Chapter 6: Beyond the Looking Glass
Chapter 7: Pre-Intentional Awareness of Self
Chapter 8: In Different Times and Places
Chapter 9: Self-Awareness and Persons
Chapter 10: Other Awareness: Mindreading and Shame
Chapter 11: Animals as Persons and Why It Matters