Animals and Misanthropy

This is a striking and original project with a thought-provoking premise about misanthropy and its justification. Cooper refreshes our notion of what misanthropy is by identifying it, not as a hostile feeling towards other human beings, as traditionally understood, but as a negative moral judgment on humankind, a judgment formed partly out of how we compare with and how we treat animals, and this is the theme of the book. It is not intended as another tour through the routine moral theories highlighting the moral status of animals. No theory is required to see how they should be treated ‘once animals are properly perceived’.

Cooper rejects the idea that human beings are merely one animal species amongst others, and his emphasis on the nature of the differences brings into relief his central contention that the bad treatment of animals is to be understood as a ‘moral debacle’ because it is one manifestation of the moral vices that are distinctively human and earn the negative judgment of misanthropy, rather than because it violates animal rights or ignores their moral status. It is interesting that Cooper wants to foreground dogs and horses rather than the apes, though he teasingly leaves this unexplained in his proposal.

There is a further distinguishing characteristic of Cooper’s treatment of this issue, viz that it draws freely on Asian and East Asian sources. Those familiar with Cooper’s work will be aware of how much he has contributed to bringing these sources into conversation with western philosophy, offering a new kind of fusion that makes possible a ‘world philosophy’ and this is an important aspect of this short book and should be emphasised in promotion material since there is a growing interest in how Buddhist and other traditions can influence our western philosophical ideas.

• Michael McGhee, University of Liverpool, UK

This is an excellent proposal: the topic is original and important, the structure sensible, the arguments very compelling, the diversity of sources/inspirations both rich and impressive, and it would be importantly and interestingly different from the vast literature on animals – something that stands apart for good reasons.

Misanthropy is an excellent theme for reflection on animals, the good life, and the human condition and the claims the author indicates show its richness. Indeed, there’s a good deal of courage in tackling the issue of misanthropy head on in this way—no doubt the uncomfortable character of the issue is one reason why few other authors have addressed it directly.

I would predict great interest in it from a wide audience of ethicists, environmental writers and theorists, lovers and scholars of animals, not to mention the various specific fields where human-animal relations are of moral, practical, and personal concern (e.g. agricultural studies, food culture, zoos, and so on). Properly promoted, the audience is enormous—and the author notes that the popular literature on animals, although enormous, tends to be quite ‘samey’, so this book, with its unique theme (misanthropy) and its rich influences (Asian and continental philosophy, animal studies, environmental thought) would be something new and welcome.

• Ian Kidd, University of Nottingham, UK

"In this lucid and elegant book Cooper draws effortlessly on literature and world philosophy to gather evidence for a bleakly compelling verdict on the morally barbarous condition of humanity through a consideration of how we compare with and treat animals, particularly those at our mercy, refreshing the meaning of misanthropy."

Michael McGhee, University of Liverpool, UK

"In this short, powerful book, David E. Cooper argues that honest reflection on the awful situation of animals justifies a charge of misanthropy - a negative moral judgment on human life at large. Surveying practices and institutions such as animal agriculture, we find a variety of human vices and failings - cruelty, insensitivity, hubris - so entrenched and extensive that they warrant critical judgment on nothing less than our way of life itself. By contrast, lucid appreciation of the lives of animals shows them to be characterised by spontaneity and other virtues, alongside a fundamental vulnerability ruthlessly exploited by human beings. By drawing upon the writings of Western and Asian philosophers and others engaged personally and professionally with animals, Cooper advances a charge of misanthropy that corrects vainglorious moral optimism and points to other, better ways to live with animals."

Ian James Kidd, University of Nottingham, UK

"David E. Cooper’s Animals and Misanthropy is a meditation on animals and humans. It is also an argument for a negative view of humankind. Humanity’s vices, Professor Cooper argues, are in full display in its treatment of animals – beings that are themselves innocent. He writes with sensitivity about animals and without rancour about humans, thus defending a gentle but uncompromising misanthropy. You do not have to be respectful of animals or misanthropic to start reading this book, but don’t be surprised if you are both after you have finished it."

David Benatar, University of Cape Town, South Africa

"Animals and Misanthropy explores our dark side as human beings by contrasting it with the innocence of the animals we so often mistreat. It is an important and strikingly original contribution to the field of animal ethics, and essential reading, surely, for anyone concerned with our moral relations to the more-than-human world."

Simon P. James, Durham University, UK