A Republic of Fellow Sufferers

We humans are waging war against the natural world. To bring this self-defeating attitude to an end, we must recognise the moral significance of natural entities and grant them legal rights. But what is the most convincing path towards this goal? This book critically examines the principal approaches that have been proposed, from recognising the dignity of nature as a whole, to attributing rights exclusively to living beings, and finally to grounding moral and legal protection in the interests of sentient creatures. After assessing the strengths and weaknesses of these perspectives, it advances a new proposal: the Republic of Fellow Sufferers. Conceived as an attempt to bridge the longstanding divide between a commitment to a more respectful relationship with the natural world and a theory of society that fully acknowledges the intersubjective dimension, this model offers a novel framework for rethinking our obligations towards nature. Against this conceptual background, the book addresses some of the most challenging questions in environmental and animal ethics, including the relationship between human and animal rights, the conflict between conservationists and animal-rights advocates, the justification for killing non-human animals in certain circumstances, their use in scientific experimentation, and, ultimately, whether the Republic of Fellow Sufferers is a realistic political and legal project rather than a daydream.