I have to say that this book was very eye-opening. It introduced me to an entirely new perspective on the relationships between humans and animals. There were so many strong points made by the author in each chapter, and it was definitely an intense read. So many things were discussed, I don't even know where to begin. It talked about how there are two ways in which things can be valuable (intrinsically and instrumentally). It talked about how we experience life vs. how animals experience life, and how they feel pain, suffering, and anxiety just as we do. It talked about whether animals have minds, and the "moral club" that humans have created and put themselves in. It brought up how even though we consider animals to be a part of the "moral club", they are certainly at a second class level. I could easily write a paper on just this book itself because it discussed so many valuable perspectives.
After reading this book, I am definitely excited to start putting together my thesis. I am confident I will have an abundance of information to write about, and I am even hoping that I will give others the same sense of amazement I got from this text. I think that between this and my second book I will be able to have a very good sense of the specifics of my research paper. I'm also really looking forward to reading Ishmael next, as I have heard very good things about that book. I really enjoy the fact that I have never really thought about the relationship between humans and their environment, and now I'm able to dive into all of this new and interesting information.
Yes this is very true! Animals have many intelligences that we as humans don't recognize. Animals use much of the instincts that we have oppressed because of our development of reason. I think that this would be a good topic to go into your research paper with, what are some advantages and disadvantages animals have over us as people? Is the development of our thinking brain a positive attribute to us? You could even go down the route of exposing how the human race exploits animals for our own purposes: factory farming, circus training, etc.
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