The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics: A Reader

In Beyond Animal Rights, Josephine Donovan and Carol J. Adams introduced feminist "ethic of care" theory into philosophical discussions of the treatment of animals. In this new volume, seven essays from Beyond Animal Rights are joined by nine new articles--most of which were written in response to that book--and a new introduction that situates feminist animal care theory within feminist theory and the larger debate over animal rights. Contributors critique theorists' reliance on natural rights doctrine and utilitarianism, which, they suggest, have a masculine bias. They argue for ethical attentiveness and sympathy in our relationships with animals and propose a link between the continuing subjugation of women and the human domination of nature. Beginning with the earliest articulation of the idea in the mid-1980s and continuing to the theory's most recent revisions, this volume presents the most complete portrait of the evolution of the feminist-care tradition.

"Ten years after the foundational collection of essays moving Beyond Animal Rights to a feminist ethic of care for all animal species, the work in this field has doubled in size and scope. Collected in this volume are essays calling for a feminist animal care ethic that is political and activist in orientation. Here are the paths to interspecies justice, with arguments that appeal equally to reason and emotion, logic and empathy. They prove that true emotional intelligence requires a compassionate ethical response to animal suffering and human complicity alike."
-- Greta Gaard, author of Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature

 

Table of Contents for The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics

Introduction

Carol J. Adams “The War on Compassion” (2006)

Part I: Foundational Articles 1985-1996

1. Marti Kheel, “The Liberation of Nature: A Circular Affair” (1985)
2. Josephine Donovan, “Animal Rights and Feminist Theory” (1990)
3. Deane Curtin, “Toward an Ecological Ethic of Care” (1991)
4. Deborah Slicer, “Your Daughter or Your Dog.” (1991)
5. Brian Luke, “Justice, Caring, and Animal Liberation” (1992)
6. Kenneth Shapiro, “The Caring Sleuth: Portrait of an Animal Rights Activist” (1994)
7. Josephine Donovan, “Attention to Suffering: Sympathy as a Basis for Ethical Treatment of Animals” (1994)
8. Carol J. Adams, “Caring about Suffering: A Feminist Exploration” (1995)

Part II: Responses 1998-2006

9. Thomas Kelch, "Toward a Non-Property Status for Animals" (1998)
10. James Garbarino, “Protecting Children and Animals from Abuse: A Trans-Species Concept of Caring” (1999)
11. Thomas Kelch, “The Role of the Rational and the Emotive in a Theory of Animal Rights” (1999)
12. Grace Clement, “The Ethic of Care and the Problem of Wild Animals” (2003)
13. Catharine MacKinnon, “Of Mice and Men: A Feminist Fragment on Animal Rights” (2004)
14. Lori Gruen, “Empathy and Vegetarian Commitments” (2004)
15. Cathryn Bailey, “On the Backs of Animals: The Valorization of Reason in Contemporary Animal Ethics” (2005)
16. Josephine Donovan, “Caring to Dialogue: Feminism and the Treatment of Animals” (2006)