In the second part of podcast 8, I look at philosophical attitudes to human-nonhuman relations - including Platonic and Pythagorean teachings - Aristotle - Cicero - Thomas Aquinas - Francis Bacon - Rene Descartes - and Karl Marx.
The references for this podcast are the same as podcast 8(1) (see blog entry below) with the exception of Gary Steiner's Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents, from which I read two short sections from its Introduction.
LISTEN | MP3 | 53 minutes | English
At the end of this podcast, I play the full The Animals Film soundtrack album, original music composed and played by Robert Wyatt (Rough Trade Music 1982, Rough 40). I believe that few modern-day animal advocates will have heard this powerfully haunting music in this form.
From the front cover: "STATEMENT FROM JULIE CHRISTIE ON THE ANIMALS FILM. When Victor Schonfeld contacted me about his film I was interested, but have to admit I suspected it would be a kind of Disney "Let's be kind to the fluffy bunnies" type of thing. However, I went and saw it, and, gruelling experience though it was, I saw a film that reached to the roots of all our confusion about our treatment of animals. Because it's not about animals - it's about us. It's about human nature and the atrocities some factions of it can quite blandly commit. It's about the deadness of the mind that can commit these atrocities without blinking, every day, exactly in the same way they're committed, for example, in El Salvador today. And it's about our participation in these atrocities even when we're not the perpetrators. People who "love" animals wear furs, wear make-up, use products, eat food, that is the direct result of the extremest forms of cruelty to animals. I hope THE ANIMALS FILM will help people make more effort to find out from what dark pit their pleasant comforts stem."
From the back cover: ""'For animals,' wrote Isaac Bashevis Singer, 'every day is Treblinka.' The Animals Film is the first film of the Animal Liberation Movement, a comprehensive survey of the injustices committed against animals in Western society, from the casual mistreatment of household pets to the systematic abuse of animals in factory farming and research. Made over a period of two years in Britain and the United States, the film includes interviews, clandestinely shot footage of stag hunting and pharmaceutical research, and rarely seem material of the military use of animals for training, weapons testing and nuclear research. Schonfeld's film presents the case for the animals with clarity and integrity, carefully avoiding the obvious pitfalls of sensationalism or heavy handedness which such a subject offers. It is, in the best sense, provocative, a genuine challenge to our assumptions and our complacency. Without being patronising, it speaks eloquently for those who cannot speak for themselves." Clive Hodgson.
28.12.09
23.12.09
One Planet: Animals and Us.
The imminent global broadcasts of ANIMALS AND US on the BBC World Service will
reach 165 million people - the single biggest audience ever for concerns about
animal suffering at human hands.
Join 165 million people across the world...
For a dose of energizing programming over the holiday season...
ONE Planet: Animals and Us
Why do humans continue to exploit other species?
Are we capable of changing our ways?
by Victor Schonfeld (maker of The Animals Film)
A global radio documentary series on the BBC WORLD SERVICE
Broadcasts from Dec 31, and on the BBC World Service web site
Revelations on...
-The spread of meat-eating and factory farming across the world, its causes and consequences
-The exploitation of animals for science, and why some doctors are turning away from it
Whatever your preconceptions, be prepared for astonishing insights
On the BBC World Service from 31 December
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ for Local Times, and for ‘Listen Again’
Email or call in reactions to BBC forum “World Have Your Say” http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/
The series will be permanently downloadable from BBC World Service science web page.
Programme One considers the use of animals for food and turns to experts in fields such as psychology, history, language and neurology to find out why humans seem so attracted to eating meat.
Programme Two focuses on the scientific establishment's attachment to using animals, and also concludes the series by considering the future: Might ending the suffering of animals at human hands greatly benefit people too?
Victor Schonfeld is renowned for his 1982 theatrical documentary "The Animals Film" narrated by Oscar-winner Julie Christie, which was instrumental in drawing attention to animal suffering at human hands around the world. Over 25 years later, Schonfeld returns to this subject in this new two part series, to question whether any progress has been made in this area, and to ask if humans’ relationship with other species is still as exploitative. He asks whether the hopes of the animal rights movement can ever be realised, given current trends in meat-based diets, industrialised factory farming and scientific research on live animals. The series features revealing dialogues with top rank figures in the United States and elsewhere to gain insights into the limitations and potential of an evolving social change movement.
reach 165 million people - the single biggest audience ever for concerns about
animal suffering at human hands.
Join 165 million people across the world...
For a dose of energizing programming over the holiday season...
ONE Planet: Animals and Us
Why do humans continue to exploit other species?
Are we capable of changing our ways?
by Victor Schonfeld (maker of The Animals Film)
A global radio documentary series on the BBC WORLD SERVICE
Broadcasts from Dec 31, and on the BBC World Service web site
Revelations on...
-The spread of meat-eating and factory farming across the world, its causes and consequences
-The exploitation of animals for science, and why some doctors are turning away from it
Whatever your preconceptions, be prepared for astonishing insights
On the BBC World Service from 31 December
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ for Local Times, and for ‘Listen Again’
Email or call in reactions to BBC forum “World Have Your Say” http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/
The series will be permanently downloadable from BBC World Service science web page.
Programme One considers the use of animals for food and turns to experts in fields such as psychology, history, language and neurology to find out why humans seem so attracted to eating meat.
Programme Two focuses on the scientific establishment's attachment to using animals, and also concludes the series by considering the future: Might ending the suffering of animals at human hands greatly benefit people too?
Victor Schonfeld is renowned for his 1982 theatrical documentary "The Animals Film" narrated by Oscar-winner Julie Christie, which was instrumental in drawing attention to animal suffering at human hands around the world. Over 25 years later, Schonfeld returns to this subject in this new two part series, to question whether any progress has been made in this area, and to ask if humans’ relationship with other species is still as exploitative. He asks whether the hopes of the animal rights movement can ever be realised, given current trends in meat-based diets, industrialised factory farming and scientific research on live animals. The series features revealing dialogues with top rank figures in the United States and elsewhere to gain insights into the limitations and potential of an evolving social change movement.
20.12.09
Having a Wild Time on the Radio.
Been a busy last few weeks for me - media-wise.
I conducted my first - the first - interview for Vegan Ireland a few days ago. All group members seemed to assume someone else would record it, including me, so no-one did.
I was also interviewed recently by Victor Schonfeld, the director of The Animals Film, for the Beeb Beeb Ceeb's World Service. Professor Gary Francione has posted a blog entry about what should be the resultant programmes, One Planet: Animals and Us. Be interesting to see what, if anything, of mine is included: Schonfeld seemed to think I would say something other than I did, but that could be a misperception on my part.
I was also the guest on Thomas Janek's Wild Time which I did record! Poorly, though, by live mike, so I'm asking for forgiveness from all you hi-tech people out there. It is OK to listen to I think, especially after the opening music is over.
This is part one...
LISTEN | MP3 | 61 minutes | English (with lots of talk about being German).
[THIS LINK may work too - it is much better quality]
Part two is available here (and in better quality).
On The Animals Film, I've now found my old (1982) copy (long-playing record or "LP", folks) of the film's soundtrack by the mighty Robert Wyatt. When I post the second part of On Human-Nonhuman Relations Podcast 8, I will play all of it at the end (28 minutes). I doubt that this music has been heard much in this form - I guess the LP is pretty rare now.
I conducted my first - the first - interview for Vegan Ireland a few days ago. All group members seemed to assume someone else would record it, including me, so no-one did.
I was also interviewed recently by Victor Schonfeld, the director of The Animals Film, for the Beeb Beeb Ceeb's World Service. Professor Gary Francione has posted a blog entry about what should be the resultant programmes, One Planet: Animals and Us. Be interesting to see what, if anything, of mine is included: Schonfeld seemed to think I would say something other than I did, but that could be a misperception on my part.
I was also the guest on Thomas Janek's Wild Time which I did record! Poorly, though, by live mike, so I'm asking for forgiveness from all you hi-tech people out there. It is OK to listen to I think, especially after the opening music is over.
This is part one...
LISTEN | MP3 | 61 minutes | English (with lots of talk about being German).
[THIS LINK may work too - it is much better quality]
Part two is available here (and in better quality).
On The Animals Film, I've now found my old (1982) copy (long-playing record or "LP", folks) of the film's soundtrack by the mighty Robert Wyatt. When I post the second part of On Human-Nonhuman Relations Podcast 8, I will play all of it at the end (28 minutes). I doubt that this music has been heard much in this form - I guess the LP is pretty rare now.
18.12.09
Jonathan Safran Foer on the "Ellen" show, USA.
Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, plugging his book Eating Animals, makes some interesting sociological points in the clips below.
In particular, he talks about the images we have about "farms" compared to the realities. As such, much of what he says is similar to the material I developed in my Ph.D in a chapter on the maintenance of socially-constructed ideas about the species barrier.
Apparently, Foer is a big fan of both the HSUS and PeTA, so not everything he says and stands for is great - however, these short clips are worth watching.
In particular, he talks about the images we have about "farms" compared to the realities. As such, much of what he says is similar to the material I developed in my Ph.D in a chapter on the maintenance of socially-constructed ideas about the species barrier.
Apparently, Foer is a big fan of both the HSUS and PeTA, so not everything he says and stands for is great - however, these short clips are worth watching.
12.12.09
Podcast 8. The Religious Underpinning of Speciesism.
LISTEN | MP3 | 20 mins | English
Podcast References.
Bauman, Z. (1990) Thinking Sociologically, Oxford: Blackwell.
Beirne, P. (2007) "Animal rights, animal abuse and green criminology", in P. Beirne & N. South (eds.) Issues In Green Criminology: Confronting Harms Against Environments, Humanity and Other Animals, Cullompton, Devon: Willan.
Dess, N.K. & Chapman, C.D. (1998) "'Humans and Animals?' On Saying What We Mean", Psychological Science, Vol 9(2), March: 156-7.
Linzey, A. (1976) Animal Rights: A Christian Assessment, London: SCM Press.
Linzey, A. (1987) Christianity and the Rights of Animals, London: SCM Press.
Linzey, A. (1994) Animal Theology, London: SCM Press; (with T. Regan, eds.)
Luckmann, T. (1967) The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society, London: Macmillan.
Mason, J. (2005) An Unnatural Order: A Manifesto for Change, London: Lantern.
Noske, B. (1989) Humans and Other Animals, London: Pluto Press.
Ritvo, H. (1987) The Animals Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ryder, R. D. (2000) Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism, rev ed., Oxford: Blackwell.
Sargent, T. (1996) Animal Rights and Wrongs: A Biblical Perspective, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Schwartz, R.H. (2001) Judaism and Vegetarianism, (rev. ed), New York: Lantern Books. [Francis of Assisi appears to have based his compassion for animals on notions of indirect duties and animal welfarism. There is a story of a disciple who is said to have sliced off a pig’s trotter: Francis rebukes the disciple, not for the cruel act toward the pig, or because of violating rights, but because he has damaged the pig owner’s ‘property.’]
Singer, P. (1985) (ed.) In Defence of Animals, Oxford: Blackwell.
Spiegal, M. (1988) The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, London: Heretic Books.
This is part one of the Tom Regan video I mention.
Podcast References.
Bauman, Z. (1990) Thinking Sociologically, Oxford: Blackwell.
Beirne, P. (2007) "Animal rights, animal abuse and green criminology", in P. Beirne & N. South (eds.) Issues In Green Criminology: Confronting Harms Against Environments, Humanity and Other Animals, Cullompton, Devon: Willan.
Dess, N.K. & Chapman, C.D. (1998) "'Humans and Animals?' On Saying What We Mean", Psychological Science, Vol 9(2), March: 156-7.
Linzey, A. (1976) Animal Rights: A Christian Assessment, London: SCM Press.
Linzey, A. (1987) Christianity and the Rights of Animals, London: SCM Press.
Linzey, A. (1994) Animal Theology, London: SCM Press; (with T. Regan, eds.)
Luckmann, T. (1967) The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society, London: Macmillan.
Mason, J. (2005) An Unnatural Order: A Manifesto for Change, London: Lantern.
Noske, B. (1989) Humans and Other Animals, London: Pluto Press.
Ritvo, H. (1987) The Animals Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ryder, R. D. (2000) Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism, rev ed., Oxford: Blackwell.
Sargent, T. (1996) Animal Rights and Wrongs: A Biblical Perspective, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Schwartz, R.H. (2001) Judaism and Vegetarianism, (rev. ed), New York: Lantern Books. [Francis of Assisi appears to have based his compassion for animals on notions of indirect duties and animal welfarism. There is a story of a disciple who is said to have sliced off a pig’s trotter: Francis rebukes the disciple, not for the cruel act toward the pig, or because of violating rights, but because he has damaged the pig owner’s ‘property.’]
Singer, P. (1985) (ed.) In Defence of Animals, Oxford: Blackwell.
Spiegal, M. (1988) The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, London: Heretic Books.
This is part one of the Tom Regan video I mention.
8.12.09
On Human-Nonhuman Relations, University of Wales, 09-12-09.
Some slides I will be showing at a UWB seminar on Human-Nonhuman Relations.
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