Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals
Ratings8
Average rating3.3
Does living with a pet really make people happier and healthier? What can we learn from biomedical research with mice? Who enjoys a better quality of life -- the chicken destined for your dinner plate or the rooster in a Saturday night cockfight? Why is it wrong to eat the family dog? Drawing on more than two decades of research into the emerging field of anthrozoology, the science of human–animal relations, Hal Herzog offers an illuminating exploration of the fierce moral conundrums we face every day regarding the creatures with whom we share our world. Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny -- blending anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy -- this enlightening and provocative book will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves. - Publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Brilliant. Morality, ambiguity, hypocrisy, cognitive biases – all my favorite stuff. Herzog presents wonderful, insightful, often disturbing questions about our relationships with nonhuman animals. He does so with a kind and gentle voice filled with compassion and humor. This is a book to savor, to ponder, to discuss.
Thumbs down to Harper Collins for the abysmal printing job, though. May be there prufreeder waz on vakashun?
Interesting discussion of philosophies of ethics regarding the relationship humans have with animals. The author's style is accessible. He remains neutral when his focus is on anglophone cultures, which is most of the text.