The lives of animals PDF
Preview The lives of animals
THE LIVES OF ANIMALS THE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HUMAN VALUES SERIES AMY GUTMANN, EDITOR Multiculturalismand“ThePoliticsofRecognition” byCharlesTaylor AMatterofInterpretation:FederalCourtsandtheLaw byAntoninScalia FreedomofAssociation editedbyAmyGutmann WorkandWelfare byRobertM.Solow TheLivesofAnimals byJ.M.Coetzee The Lives of Animals v v J. M. COETZEE MARJORIE GARBER PETER SINGER WENDY DONIGER BARBARA SMUTS v EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY AMY GUTMANN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright(cid:211) 1999byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress, Chichester,WestSussex AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Thelivesofanimals/J.M.Coetzee...[etal.];edited andintroducedbyAmyGutmann. p. cm.—(UniversityCenterforHumanValuesseries) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-691-00443-9(cl:alk.paper) 1.Animalrights—Philosophy. 2.Animalwelfare—Moral andethicalaspects. I.Coetzee,J.M.,1940– . II.Gutmann,Amy. III.Series. HV4708.L57 1999 179¢.3—dc21 98-39591 ThisbookhasbeencomposedinJanson Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetsthe minimumrequirementsof ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992(R1997) (PermanenceofPaper) http://pup.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 CONTENTS v INTRODUCTION AmyGutmann 3 THE LIVES OF ANIMALS J.M.Coetzee ThePhilosophersandtheAnimals 15 ThePoetsandtheAnimals 47 REFLECTIONS MarjorieGarber 73 PeterSinger 85 WendyDoniger 93 BarbaraSmuts 107 CONTRIBUTORS 121 INDEX 123 This page intentionally left blank THE LIVES OF ANIMALS This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION v Amy Gutmann v “S ERIOUSNESS is, for a certain kind of artist,an imperativeunit- ing the aesthetic and the ethical,” John Coetzee wrote in Giving Offense: Essays onCensorship. In TheLivesofAnimals,the1997–98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton University, John Coetzee displays the kind of seriousness that can unite aesthetics and ethics. Like the typical Tanner Lectures, Coetzee’s lectures focus on an im- portant ethical issue—the way human beings treat animals—but theformofCoetzee’slecturesisfarfromthetypicalTannerLec- tures,whicharegenerallyphilosophicalessays.Coetzee’slectures arefictionalinform:twolectureswithintwolectures,whichcon- tain a critique of a more typical philosophical approach to the topic of animal rights. Coetzee prompts us to imagine an aca- demic occasion (disconcertingly like the Tanner Lectures) in whichthe characterElizabeth Costello, also anovelist,isinvited byherhostsatAppletonCollegetodelivertwohonorificlectures onatopicofherchoice.Costellosurprisesherhostsbynotdeliv- ering lectures on literature or literary criticism, her most appar- entareasofacademicexpertise.Rathershetakestheopportunity to discuss in detail what she viewsas a “crimeof stupefying pro- portions” that her academiccolleagues andfellow human beings routinely and complacentlycommit: the abuse of animals. Coetzee dramatizes the increasingly difficult relationships be- tween the aging novelist Elizabeth Costello and her family and professional colleagues. She progressively views her fellow 3
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