What Do We Owe Other Animals? (Little Debates about Big Questions)

Philosophers Bob Fischer and Anja Jauernig agree that human society often treats animals in indefensible ways and that all animals morally matter; they disagree on whether humans and animals morally matter equally. In What Do We Owe Other Animals?: A Debate, Fischer and Jauernig square off over this central question in animal ethics. Jauernig defends the view that all living beings morally matter equally and are owed compassion, on account of which we are also obligated to adopt a vegan diet. Fischer denies that we have an obligation to become vegans, and argues for the position that humans morally matter more than all other living creatures.

The two authors each offer a clear, well-developed opening statement, a direct response to the other’s statement, and then a response to the other’s response. Along the way, they explore central questions, like: What kind of beings matter morally? What kind of obligations do we have towards other animals? How demanding can we reasonably expect these obligations to be? Do our individual consumer choices, such as the choice to purchase factory-farmed animal products, make a difference to the wellbeing of animals? The debate is helpfully framed by introductions and conclusions to each of the major parts and by smaller introductions to each of the sub-sections. A Foreword by Dustin Crummett sets the context for the debate within a larger discussion of sentience, moral standing, reason-guided compassion, and the larger field of animal ethics.

Key Features

• Showcases the presentation and defense of two points of view on the moral worth of non-human animals
• Provides frequent summaries of previously covered material
• Includes a topically-organized list of Further Readings and a Glossary of all specialized vocabulary

Anja Jauernig is Professor of Philosophy at New York University, working in the history of European modern philosophy (seventeenth to nineteenth century), aesthetics, and animal ethics. Her book on Immanuel Kant’s theoretical philosophy, The World According to Kant―Appearances and Things in Themselves in Kant’s Critical Idealism (Oxford University Press), was published in 2021.

Bob Fischer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University, a Research Manager for Rethink Priorities, and Director of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals. He has written and edited several books about animal ethics, including, Animal Ethics―A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2021).