Redressing the Balance: The Importance of Animal Value to 'Animal Ethics'
'My thesis questions current debates and theories within 'animal ethics' (sic) in an attempt to (a) demonstrate that the former rests upon an assumed (morally-relevant) value distinction between human and nonhuman animals, and (b) that the current 'animal ethic' theories also assume this distinction and disturbingly anthropocentric.
The project will look at the origin and justification of this assumption, and attempt to show that any such distinction is ungrounded and problematic. From this a new 'animal ethic' theory will be attempted that draws much more from environmental ethics than any current theory in an attempt to resolve the debates, present a more justified (and non-arbitrary or biased) theory, provide insight into current ethical, social, and political issues, and bring 'animal' and 'environmental' ethics into one intuitive and practical theory