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In 'Cognitive Kin, Moral Strangers?', Judith Benz-Schwarzburg reveals the scope and relevance of cognitive kinship between humans and non-human animals. She presents a wide range of empirical studies on culture, language and theory of mind in animals and then leads us to ask why such complex socio-cognitive abilities in animals matter. Her focus is on ethical theory as well as on the practical ways in which we use animals. Are great apes maybe better described as non-human persons? Should we really use dolphins as entertainers or therapists? Benz-Schwarzburg demonstrates how much we know already about animals? capabilities and needs and how this knowledge should inform the ways in which we treat animals in captivity and in the wild

Why are humans so ignorant with regard to the fundamental gap between ethical claims and the status quo of the human-animal relationship? To answer this, we should include more psychological and sociological perspectives in our discussions.

Rowlands (2016) concentrates strictly on the metaphysical concept of person, but his notion of animal personhood bears a moral dimension (Monsó, 2016). His definition of pre-reflective self-awareness has a focus on sentience and on the lived body of a person as well as on her implicit awareness of her own goals. Interestingly, these also play a key role in animal welfare science, as well as in animal rights theories that value the interests of animals. Thus, Rowlands's concept shows connectivity with both major fields of animal ethics. His metaphysical arguments might indeed contain a strong answer to the question of what we owe animals as persons.

I argue that Rowlands's concept of pre-reflective self-awareness offers a way to understand animals as Social Selves. It does so because it departs from the orthodox conception of self-awareness, which is both egocentric and logocentric. Instead, its focus is on the relation between consciousness and a person's lived body, her actions and goals. Characterizing persons as pre-reflectively self-aware beings in Rowlands's sense offers a much more useful conceptual tool to interpret social behaviour in animals.

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Socio-Cognitive Abilities in Animals as the Object of Science-and What Has Been Neglected Thus Far -- Questions and Objectives of the Book -- Socio-Cognitive Abilities in Animals -- The Concept of Cognition and the Concept of Consciousness -- Culture in Animals? -- Language in Animals? -- Theory of Mind in Animals? -- Summary and Transition -- The Relevance of Socio-Cognitive Abilities in Animals for Animal Ethics and Animal Welfare -- Kinship and Responsibility: the Moral Status of Animals -- Kinship and Responsibility: the Discrepancy between Ethical Demands and the Status Quo -- Summary -- Discussion -- Cognitive Kinship and the Concept of an Evolutionary Self -- A Comparison of Arguments -- Possibilities of Modifying Personhood Rights for Animals -- Alternative: Turn the Focus Back to the Suffering of Animals? -- Final Evaluation of Personhood Rights for Animals -- Back Matter -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Index.

Farm animal welfare is a major concern for society and food production. To more accurately evaluate animal farming in general and to avoid exposing farm animals to poor welfare situations, it is necessary to understand not only their behavioral but also their cognitive needs and capacities. Thus, general knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their environment is of major importance for a range of stakeholders, from citizens to politicians to cognitive ethologists to philosophers. This review aims to outline the current state of farm animal cognition research and focuses on ungulate livestock species, such as cattle, horses, pigs and small ruminants, and reflects upon a defined set of cognitive capacities (physical cognition: categorization, numerical ability, object permanence, reasoning, tool use; social cognition: individual discrimination and recognition, communication with humans, social learning, attribution of attention, prosociality, fairness). We identify a lack of information on certain aspects of physico-cognitive capacities in most farm animal species, such as numerosity discrimination and object permanence. This leads to further questions on how livestock comprehend their physical environment and understand causal relationships. Increasing our knowledge in this area will facilitate efforts to adjust husbandry systems and enrichment items to meet the needs and preferences of farm animals. Research in the socio-cognitive domain indicates that ungulate livestock possess sophisticated mental capacities, such as the discrimination between, and recognition of, conspecifics as well as human handlers using multiple modalities. Livestock also react to very subtle behavioral cues of conspecifics and humans. These socio-cognitive capacities can impact human-animal interactions during management practices and introduce ethical considerations on how to treat livestock in general. We emphasize the importance of gaining a better understanding of how livestock species interact with their physical ...

Farm animal welfare is a major concern for society and food production. To more accurately evaluate animal farming in general and to avoid exposing farm animals to poor welfare situations, it is necessary to understand not only their behavioral but also their cognitive needs and capacities. Thus, general knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their environment is of major importance for a range of stakeholders, from citizens to politicians to cognitive ethologists to philosophers. This review aims to outline the current state of farm animal cognition research and focuses on ungulate livestock species, such as cattle, horses, pigs and small ruminants, and reflects upon a defined set of cognitive capacities (physical cognition: categorization, numerical ability, object permanence, reasoning, tool use; social cognition: individual discrimination and recognition, communication with humans, social learning, attribution of attention, prosociality, fairness). We identify a lack of information on certain aspects of physico-cognitive capacities in most farm animal species, such as numerosity discrimination and object permanence. This leads to further questions on how livestock comprehend their physical environment and understand causal relationships. Increasing our knowledge in this area will facilitate efforts to adjust husbandry systems and enrichment items to meet the needs and preferences of farm animals. Research in the socio-cognitive domain indicates that ungulate livestock possess sophisticated mental capacities, such as the discrimination between, and recognition of, conspecifics as well as human handlers using multiple modalities. Livestock also react to very subtle behavioral cues of conspecifics and humans. These socio-cognitive capacities can impact human-animal interactions during management practices and introduce ethical considerations on how to treat livestock in general. We emphasize the importance of gaining a better understanding of how livestock species interact with their physical ...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Contributors -- 1 Introduction: Welcome to the Futures of Wildlife Tourism -- Part 1: Paths Towards the Futures of Wildlife Tourism -- 2 Wildlife Tourism in (Un)sustainable Futures -- 3 Rabbits in the Wild: Close Encounters on an Equal Footing? -- 4 Representing Wild Animals to Humans: The Ethical Future of Wildlife Tourism -- Part 2: Human–Animal Encounters -- 5 The Rise of Selfie Safaris and the Future(s) of Wildlife Tourism -- 6 The Future of Captive Wildlife: Useful and Enjoyable for Animals and Visitors -- 7 Promises and Pitfalls in the Future of Sustainable Wildlife Interpretation -- 8 Interspecies Communication and Encounters with Orcas -- Part 3: Technology Advancements -- 9 Safeguarding Sustainable Futures for Marine Wildlife Tourism through Collaboration and Innovation: The Utopia of Whale-Watching -- 10 Designing Future Wildlife Tourism Experiences: On Agency in Human–Sled Dog Encounters -- 11 The Future of Captive Animals and Tourism: The Zoo and Aquatic Cloning Centre 2070 -- 12 Will Cryptogovernance Save the Wildlife Tourism Commons -- 13 Final Reflections: Travel Notes, Postcards, Treasures and Dragons -- Index