The Case For Animal Rights

Citation

Regan, T. (2004). The Case for Animal Rights (2nd ed.). University of California Press.

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

First published in 1983, the book is a full-length work of moral philosophy, and the 2004 edition adds a long new preface in which Regan answers critics and restates his position. Its aim is to show that some animals have moral rights, and that the rights view, not utilitarianism or any theory that gives animals only indirect protection, is the best account of what we owe them.

The argument has three movements. The first (Chapters 1 to 3) argues that many animals are conscious, have beliefs and desires, and have a welfare of their own. The second (Chapters 4 to 6) sets out how moral theories should be judged and then examines the main rivals: views that give animals only indirect protection, and views that count their interests but allow them to be traded off for aggregate benefit. The third (Chapters 7 to 9) builds the positive theory around the idea that individuals who are the "subject of a life" have inherent value and are owed respect, and then applies it. Regan's conclusions are abolitionist: the book rejects the reform of practices that treat animals as resources and does not stop at reducing suffering.

Chapter 1: Animal Awareness

The chapter takes on the claim, associated with Descartes, that animals are unconscious machines. It examines replies to Descartes and objections to them, including the principle of parsimony, La Mettrie's objection, the language test and general scepticism, and argues from evolutionary theory and a cumulative case that animal consciousness is real. It asks which animals are conscious.

Chapter 2: The Complexity of Animal Awareness

The chapter goes beyond bare consciousness to ask what mental life animals have. It discusses the belief-desire theory, the relation between language and belief, and the content of belief, answers three objections, and concludes that animal consciousness is complex.

Chapter 3: Animal Welfare

Regan analyses what it is for an animal to have a welfare: autonomy, interests, benefits and harms, and the harm of death. He applies the analysis to paternalism and euthanasia. The point is to show that animals can be benefited and harmed in ways that matter to them.

Chapter 4: Ethical Thinking and Theory

This methodological chapter covers some ways not to answer moral questions, the ideal moral judgment, and criteria for evaluating moral principles. It surveys consequentialist and nonconsequentialist theories and sets out how they are to be assessed.

Chapter 5: Indirect Duty Views

The chapter examines views on which we have duties concerning animals but none directly to them: Narveson's rational egoism, Rawls's contractarianism and Kant's idea of humanity as an end in itself. It concludes that all such views are morally arbitrary.

Chapter 6: Direct Duty Views

Here Regan turns to views that grant animals direct moral weight: the cruelty-kindness view, hedonistic utilitarianism and preference utilitarianism. He considers Singer's grounds for vegetarianism and discusses utilitarianism and speciesism.

Chapter 7: Justice and Equality

The chapter looks at utilitarian and perfectionist theories of justice, then introduces inherent value, the subject-of-a-life criterion and the respect principle, and defends the principle. It also derives a harm principle from it.

Chapter 8: The Rights View

This is the theoretical core. It deals with moral and legal rights, valid claims, and acquired and unacquired duties, and applies the respect principle to the right to respectful treatment, including the rights of moral patients. It then considers when the right not to be harmed may be overridden, the miniride and worse-off principles, and whether numbers should count. It ends with answers to objections and a section on unfinished business.

Chapter 9: Implications of the Rights View

The final chapter applies the theory: why vegetarianism is obligatory, why hunting and trapping are wrong, how to think about endangered species, and why the use of animals in science is to be opposed. An epilogue, notes and an index follow.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3

• Animal consciousness: the claim, defended against Cartesian denial and scepticism, that many animals are aware.
• Belief-desire theory: the account of mental life used to show that animals have beliefs and desires.
• Welfare and harm: the interests that make an individual's life go better or worse, including the harm of death.

Chapters 4–6

• Direct and indirect duty views: whether duties are owed to animals themselves or are only duties about them.
• Speciesism: favouring one's own species without a morally relevant reason, a charge Regan presses against utilitarian views.

Chapters 7–9

• Inherent value: value that an individual has independently of its usefulness to others.
• Subject of a life: the criterion for having inherent value, which depends on having beliefs, desires, perception, memory and a sense of the future.
• Respect principle and harm principle: individuals with inherent value are to be treated with respect, and this yields a duty not to harm them.
• Miniride and worse-off principles: Regan's tools for resolving conflicts of rights when overriding is considered.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A systematic argument. The book builds its case in steps, from consciousness to welfare to ethical method to rival theories and then to the rights view, so the reader can see where each premise comes from. The detailed section headings make it easy to find a particular objection and reply.
• Engagement with rivals. Singer's utilitarianism, contractarian views and Kant's position are discussed in detail, which makes the book useful for students of rights theory generally and not only for those interested in animals.
• A new preface in the 2004 edition. Regan responds to critics of the original edition, giving the reader his own later position.
• Serious reception. The publisher quotes endorsements from philosophers such as Beauchamp and Rolston, and reviews describing it as a major work in moral philosophy.

Limitations

• Length and density. With a text of nearly 400 pages before the epilogue, plus long prefaces, notes and an index, it is a monograph and not an introduction. Chapters 4 to 8 are demanding.
• Philosophy, not law. Regan's concern is moral rights. Legal rights are discussed briefly in Chapter 8, and the book does not survey animal law, so jurisprudence students will need other sources for the legal side.
• A contested conclusion. The rights view leads to strong conclusions about vegetarianism, hunting and research. Students should read the replies to Regan before treating them as settled.
• Age. The argument dates from the early 1980s, and its treatment of animal cognition reflects the research then available.

Where It Fits in the Course

The jurisprudence course mixes general introductions with books on specific topics. Simmonds's Central Issues in Jurisprudence and Wacks's Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction give the background in legal theory, and Simmonds's treatment of rights is a useful companion to Regan's account of moral and legal rights. Regan's Defending Animal Rights is a later book by the same author that answers criticisms and defends abolitionism, and Animal Rights and Human Obligations is an anthology edited by Singer and Regan that includes historical and contemporary readings. The other titles, Fuller's Case of the Speluncean Explorers, Lacey's biography of Hart and An-Na'im's article on Islamic law, concern different questions.

Read The Case for Animal Rights after a short introduction to rights theory and, if possible, before Defending Animal Rights, which responds to criticisms of it.

How to Use This Book

The book suits upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in philosophy, law and related fields. Readers should be comfortable with sustained abstract argument.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 7 and 8 for the rights view, preceded by Chapter 6 on utilitarianism, which Regan treats as his main rival.
• Background: Chapters 1 to 3 on animal minds and welfare, which can be skimmed by a reader who already accepts that animals are conscious. Chapter 4 can be read selectively for the method.
• Application: Chapter 9 and the epilogue, which show where the theory leads.
• Reading strategy: read the Preface to the 2004 Edition first for Regan's own summary and his answers to critics, and then follow the argument in order. Use the section headings as a checklist, and write down the premises of the argument from the subject-of-a-life criterion to the respect principle.