Knowing That We Can Control

When Children See Animals In A Circus, They Learn That Animals Exist For Our Amusement. Quite Apart From The Cruelty Involved In Training And Confining These Animals, The Whole Idea That We Should Enjoy The Humiliating Spectacle Of An Elephant Or Lion Made To Perform Circus Tricks Shows A Lack Of Respect For The Animals As Individuals.

Philosophy Ought To Question The Basic Assumptions Of The Age. Thinking Through, Critically And Carefully, What Most Of Us Take For Granted Is, I Believe, The Chief Task Of Philosophy, And The Task That Makes Philosophy A Worthwhile Activity.

The Traditional View Of The Sanctity Of Human Life Will Collapse Under Pressure From Scientific, Technological And Demographic Developments.

What You Could Say, And What I Do Argue In The Book, Is That He Doesn't Have As Much Concern For The Lives Of Iraqis As He Does For The Lives Of Americans, Or Even Frozen American Embryos.

I Don't Understand The Notion That Modern Farming Is Anything Do To With Nature. It's A Pretty Gross Interference With Nature. I Think It Ought To Be Governed By The Standards Of How It Affects The Individual Animals, Just As We'd Want To Deal With Institutions That Deal With Humans By How They Affect Individual Humans.