Journal Cover
Relations : Beyond Anthropocentrism
Number of Followers: 1  

  This is an Open Access Journal Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2283-3196 - ISSN (Online) 2280-9643
Published by LED Edizioni Universitarie Homepage  [5 journals]
  • What We Owe Owls. Nonideal Relationality among Fellow Creatures in the Old
           Growth Forest

    • Authors: Ben Almassi
      Pages: 9 - 21
      Abstract: Though many of us have constructed our lives (or have had them constructed for us) such that it is easy to ignore or forget, human lives are entangled with other animals in many ways. Some interspecies relations would arguably exist in some form or another even under an ideal model of animal ethics. Others have an inescapably non-ideal character – these relationships exist as they do because things have gone wrong. In such circumstances we have reparative duties to animals we have wronged because we have wronged them. Here I draw upon Christine Korsgaard’s “Fellow Creatures” (2018) and other nonideal approaches to animal ethics to critically assess the United States Fish & Wildlife Service practice of killing barred owls to protect endangered spotted owls in the old growth forest of the Pacific Northwest. This is a difficult case to be sure, but one that can benefit from non-ideal moral assessment in terms of interspecies relational repair. I argue for increased spotted owl habitat preservation and forest restoration as an alternative to barred owl removal that better aligns with both nonideal relational animal ethics and stated US Fish & Wildlife Service values.
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-almb
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
  • The “Cruel Absurdity” of Human Violence and Its Consequences. A Vegan
           Studies Analysis of a Pandemic Novel

    • Authors: Jessica Murray
      Pages: 23 - 38
      Abstract: This article teases out what a Vegan Studies theoretical framework can offer a literary analysis of a selected pandemic novel, “The Fell” (2021), by Sarah Moss. Pandemic fiction accommodates texts from a wide range of genres, and these types of literary texts have seen a resurgence in the wake of the spread of the corona virus. While literary engagements with pandemics have often been relegated to the realms of dystopian science fiction, our current realities have shifted to such an extent that they can now comfortably be read alongside more realistic fictional representations of contemporary societies. The causal relationships between anthropocentric abuse of the environment in general and of animals in particular, and pandemics have been energetically contested in the media and in scholarly disciplinary fields ranging from Virology to Critical Animal Studies. The argument that I will develop is that Vegan Studies is a theoretical rubric with unique and salient generative capacity and that it allows for the emergence of fresh and necessary insights when we start unpacking how to make sense of pandemics through fiction. I will use Moss’s novel to anchor and illustrate my argument in favour of the value of Vegan Studies in these discussions.
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-murj
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
  • Duality of Abuse and Care. Empathy in Sara Gruen’s Water for
           Elephants

    • Authors: Moumita Bala, Smriti Singh
      Pages: 39 - 54
      Abstract: In an era of Anthropocene, habitat loss and species extinction due to anthropogenic factors, and the upsurge in animal exploitation force us to reconsider the “animal question” and relationships between humans and animals. All forms of animal abuse violate the subjectivity of the animals by othering them as objects who are mercilessly exploited. Purportedly influenced by the social consciousness of the moral rights of animals and the animal advocacy movement, Sara Gruen’s novel “Water for Elephants” (2006), exposes the horrible reality of animals being mistreated for entertainment in the circus industry through a fictitious description of the events in the Benzini Brothers’ Shows. The framework of this research is based on two arguments: the crucial link between human insensitivity or empathy erosion and animal abuse; and the significance of empathy, in particular, “entangled empathy”, in acknowledging animals as moral subjects, taking care of them, and creating the harmonious human-animal relationship in the novel.
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-basi
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
  • Immanuel Kant e l’etica ambientale. Tre proposte per rivisitare (e una
           per riattualizzare) la morale kantiana

    • Authors: Matteo Andreozzi
      Pages: 55 - 73
      Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that in order to claim that Kant’s ethics is neither speciesist nor anthropocentric there is no need to reinterpret Kant’s theories pushing them over their anthroposcopism. I start by exploring the most relevant references to non-human animals and nature in Kant’s moral theory. Then I highlight the main reasons behind the critics of speciesism and anthropocentrism often referred to Kant’s philosophy. I show how non-anthropocentric environmental ethics reinterpretations of Kant’s moral theory offered by Christine Korsgaard, Sharon Anderson-Gold e Marc Lucht reply to the critics. In conclusion, I claim that staying with Kant’s anthroposcopism and formal approach to moral ethics could be enough to provide a stronger theoretical framework for an already widespread and widely accepted weak anthropocentric reformist environmental ethics.
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-andm
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
  • Ecosocial Autonomy as an Educational Ideal

    • Authors: Jani Pulkki, Sami Keto
      Pages: 75 - 90
      Abstract: Autonomy – or rational self-control – is not only fashionable as an educational ideal, but also in present-day economics, ethics, and society in general. However, the concept of traditional autonomy is problematic because it privileges humans and treats the rest of nature primarily as resources fit only for human exploitation. This anthropocentrism has led human beings to see themselves as superior to nature and separate. Ecosocial autonomy is an attempt to redress the balance, by contextualising autonomy so it incorporates the idea of self-control, while taking into account the impact of humankind on our surrounding ecosystems. Our formulation of ecosocial autonomy is an extension of relational autonomy – based mainly on ecological, ecosocial, and ecofeminist ideas. Ecosocial autonomy is thus contextualized within a multispecies society which includes our interdependencies with other living creatures. Whereas the individualist idea of autonomy suggests a human being owes nothing to society, ecosocial autonomy acknowledges the need to cultivate aspects of self-sufficiency that combine reason, emotional maturity, and will. A competitive society presupposes individual autonomy and the need to defend oneself. Ecosocial autonomy advocates a form of social interaction that diverts the human energy misspent on individual competition to mutually beneficial collaboration.
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-puke
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
  • Is There a Moral Problem in Predation'

    • Authors: Francesco Allegri
      Pages: 93 - 100
      PubDate: 2023-01-23
      DOI: 10.7358/rela-2022-02-allf
      Issue No: Vol. 10, No. 2 (2023)
       
 
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