OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ANIMALS: SYLLABUS

Bob Corbett, instructor
Tues-Thur. 3-4:30 PM.
Pearson House, Room 2
Semester long course.

See end of this message for informal, non-credit on-line discussions connected with this course.
For further information please contact Bob Corbett at:

In recent years especially with the work of Peter Singer, the "animal rights" movement has sprung up. Until that time most philosophers and others who thought seriously about our relationship to animals tended to take a more paternalistic view, holding that while animals didn't have any rights of their own, nonetheless we humans have obligations toward animals. The most popular version of this view is often called the "animal welfare" school. That is, we have moral obligations to the welfare of animals which either God or nature has somehow put under our control and authority.

This course will explore a variety of issues concerning the relationship of us humans to animals. We will explore both the animal welfare arguments and the animal rights arguments and varieties of these as well.

Among the issues we will explore are:

• eating meat, raising of animals for slaughter and the slaughter of animals for eating
• using animals for testing medicines and other commercial products
• the wearing of leather and furs
• keeping pets
• zoos

One rather special separate category of issues will be a lengthy section on the question of the intelligence of animals in relation to the intelligence of humans.

This will be a course of exploration and considering the issues. It is NOT a course in animal activism, and I will not be teaching it from any particular perspective. I am sure that students and instructor will have positions to defend, and will defend them, but the course will not be geared toward any one particular perspective.

The course will be run as a sophomore level seminar. There will be few lectures and students will be expected to participate in class and bear more responsibility for presenting material than in most classes. Each student will be expected to pick on lead research topic and to do a significant paper on it. Also, each student will be expected to take one important book in the field, or assemble a book of significant readings, and to present to the class a critical evaluation of this material.

Grading will be done on the following basis:

• Attendance, 10%
• Class participation, 30%
• Research paper and presentation, 30%
• Critical review paper and presentation, 30%

There will only be one formal text book, Peter Singer's ANIMAL LIBERATION. Students will be expected to do personal research and Corbett will provide some handouts.

This is an in-class course at the Webster campus in Webster Groves. However, I will be running informal on-line discussions of some of the issues raised in the course and some of the readings. This will not be for credit, and anyone may join. There is no charge to be part of this informal discussion group. Just drop me an e-mail note if you would like to be part of this forum.

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