Animals and Science: a Guide to the Debates

Are humans and animals the result of supernatural creation, or are they the product of evolutionary processes? Are animals conscious - able to feel pain and emotion and self-aware? Are they then beings worthy of moral respect? Do they have rights? Do we have obligations and duties towards them? This volume examines these questions in the light of the evolution of modern science, from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 21st century. It covers Medieval legacies: an examination of...
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Are humans and animals the result of supernatural creation, or are they the product of evolutionary processes? Are animals conscious - able to feel pain and emotion and self-aware? Are they then beings worthy of moral respect? Do they have rights? Do we have obligations and duties towards them? This volume examines these questions in the light of the evolution of modern science, from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 21st century. It covers Medieval legacies: an examination of the "scale of nature," based on the theological view of a universe created and designed by God, with humans as the top and other species below. It looks at medicine and the beast machine: how comparative anatomy and vivisection in the 16th and 17th centuries showed scientists structural similarities between humans and animals. It also examines animal pain and human morals: as scientists realize animals and humans experience pain the same way, the first organized animal welfare groups emerge.