The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals.

• Author: Findly, Ellison
• Position: Reviews of Books - Book Review

The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals. By PAUL WALDAU. American Academy of Religion, Academy Series. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xvi + 303.

This important book is a study of the views of animals in the early Buddhist and Christian traditions set against the historical background of arguments for and against "speciesism." Waldau gives as his working definition of speciesism, "the inclusion of all human ... animals within, and the exclusion of all other animals from, the moral circle" (p. 38). To arrive at this formulation, he provides a thorough review of relevant literature, particularly of the anti-speciesism critique, which takes its vantage point from the Darwinian argument that, biologically speaking, there is no essential threshold marking the difference between humans and other animals. The critique begins with the early attestation of the term "speciesism" in a 1970 pamphlet, privately published in Oxford by the philosopher Richard D. Ryder. Ryder's goal was, specifically, to respond to attitudes behind biomedical experiments which allow the use of animals in testing and, generally, to respond to attempts at justifying the benefits gained for the "human species" through the mistreatment of the "nonhuman species" of animals. Peter Singer's 1976 landmark contribution, Animal Liberation, then takes up the critique of speciesism which, like racism and sexism, it is argued, betrays, at times of conflict, a prejudice or bias for the interests of one group against those of another, here those of a so-called higher species against those of a so-called lower species. Not only are human animals and nonhuman animals of a different species, goes the argument, but humans are the superior and are therefore included within a circle of moral protection.

Waldau's excellent review of the literature from the last three decades is an eminently fair, beautifully argued, dense, and clearly informed discussion of the views on all sides. He takes up the question of the definition of species, and then discusses the idea of "species loyalty," which, he argues, is a cultural artifact or kind of fiction--"a discursively created and supported set of beliefs, bound up in culturally relative forms with other, more fundamental beliefs about the importance of life, relationships with some other beings, and taking responsibility as a moral agent" (p. 50). In his analysis, he focuses on the three groups of "key...