Historic and Current Discussions About Nonhuman Animal Rights: Welfarism vs. Abolitionism, Utilitarianism, Deontological Positions, Feminist Animal Ethics, and the Political Turn

In ancient philosophical writings from as early as the fifth century BC onwards, animal ethical considerations can be found, for example, in the writings of Empedocles, Porphyrios, and Pythagoras. Notable philosophical contributions concerning how humans should treat nonhuman animals were later made by Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Schopenhauer, and Schweitzer, amongst others, with animal ethics later experiencing a renewed upswing in the last few decades of the twentieth century. The reflections in this book are situated within this modern discussion of animal ethics, which is why I would like to first provide an overview of central contemporary thinkers and their positions.