BOOK CIRCLE The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics

During the summer we will have six meetings with the book circle. All the gatherings will be on thursdays. You can se the dates further down below. To all meetings we will read one or two chapters from the book and sometimes we will add another text, for example articles, which we will print and hand out to you on an earlier meeting. So far we have only decides which texts to read to the first and the second meeting. To the first meeting, on the 26th of june, we will read the introduction and a text by Shapiro about activists in the animal rights movement. To the second meeting we will read a more profound text about feminist theory and animal ethics which criticize some of the major animal rights theorist and also gives suggestions to another way of formulating animal ethics.

If you have any suggestion to which text in the anthology to read, or other texts that relates to the subject, let us know so that we can model the book circle depending on what questions we are mainly interested in as a group.

Schedule and reading

First meeting - 26the of june, 6 pm”Introduction” by Adams and Donovan, p. 1 - 20”The Caring Sleuth: Portrait of an Animal Rights Activist” by Kennet Shapiro, p. 153 - 173

Second meeting - 10th of july, 6 pm”Animal Rights and Feminist Theory” by Josepine Donovan, p. 58 - 86Article by Peter Singer or Tom Regan, which we will hand out on the first meeting

Third meeting - 24th of july, 6 pmWhich texts is not decided yet

Fourth meeting - 7th of august, 6 pmWhich texts is not decided yet

Fifth meeting - 21th of august, 6 pmWhich texts is not decided yet

Sixth meeting - 4th of september, 6 pmWhich texts is not decided yet

Questions to the first meeting 26th of june

“Introduction” by Adams and Donovan:

- What is your interpretation of a feminist ethic of care as presented by Adams and Donovan in their Introduction? Do you think that it differ from your view on animal ethics/animal rights? If yes, in which way?

“The Caring Sleuth” by Shapiro:

- How should we work to get other people starting to see the suffering of animals?

- Do you agree with the author that there exists a risk that we, who are engaged in animal rights, when we speak about the oppression of animals in an abstract or systemic way, risk to lose our awareness about the suffering carried by the individual animal?

- Shapiro write that animal rights activist are constantly reminded of the suffering of animals through the mass consumption of animals that is occurring around us. Are there any strategies to manage to keep being conscious about animal’s suffering, despite the heavy feelings that such an awareness can cause?

- Do you agree with Shapiro when he says that caring and anger partly stands in an opposition to each other?