Rod Preece – författare

Respect for animals has always been a part of human consciousness. Poets, thinkers, philosophers, scientists and statesmen have long celebrated our compassion towards Earth's other beasts.Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb compiles the most significant statements of sensibility to animals in the history of thought. From the myths of the ancient world to the Middle Ages to Darwin and beyond, Preece captures the most telling and fascinating accounts of humankind's relationship to the wild world, placing them in historical context. Jung called it an unconscious identity with animals, while Wordsworth saw it as the primal sympathy which having been must ever be. Linking the diverse chords of human experience that are touched by the animal world, Preece shows that despite a historical thread of cruelty, there still remains in all humanity a constant underlying concern for other beings as an integral part of the moral community. With musings and meditations from Lao Tse to Mohammed, from Plato to Jane Goodall, from classical religion to parliamentary proceedings, Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb is an original, superbly researched history that deepens our understanding of all living beings.

"No one tradition alone offers a sufficient respect for other species. Taken together, they may offer a prospect for saner human-animal relations." – From the bookWestern conceptions of objectivity and individuality have resulted in a readier appreciation of the worth of the animals and nature than has been recognized. This provocative book takes issue with the popular view that the Western cultural tradition, in contrast to Eastern and Aboriginal traditions, has encouraged attitudes of domination and exploitation towards nature, particularly animals.Preece argues that the Western tradition has much to commend it, and that descriptions of Aboriginal and Oriental orientations have often been misleadingly rosy, simplified and codified according to current fashionable concepts.Animals and Nature is the result of six years' intensive study into comparative religion, literature, philosophy, anthropology, mythology and animal welfare science.

In our modern world, where human will routinely presides over the natural world, it is easy to imagine that sensibility to animals has been merely a matter of peripheral concern in human history. Rod Preece, in this impressively researched volume, demonstrates that, on the contrary, respect for animals has always been a part of human consciousness.Awe for the Tiger, Love for the Lamb brings together the most significant statements of sensibility to animals in the history of thought. Each chapter begins with an introduction that explains the significance of the passages, and relates them to each other culturally, historically, and philosophically. Myth, religion, literature, philosophy, and parliamentary debates are all represented in this compendium whose time frame stretches from the early days of recorded human history to the beginning of the twentieth century. This unique book will be welcomed by scholars interested in animal studies and the history of ideas, as well as those with a concern for animal life.

In this provocative inquiry into the status of animals in human society from the fifth century BC to the present, Rod Preece provides a wholly new perspective on the human-animal relationship. He skillfully demonstrates that, counter to prevailing intellectual opinion, ethical attitudes toward animals are neither restricted to the twentieth century nor the result of Darwin's theory of evolution. They have been part of Western thought and culture for centuries.With his usual eloquence, Preece builds a cogent and persuasive argument, challenging current assumptions about the historical status of animals in Western civilization. He dispels the notion that animals were denied ethical consideration by Christian doctrine, refutes the claim that the Cartesian conception of animals as automata was widely embraced, and proves that "theriophily" -- the notion of animal superiority over humans -- was given greater credence than is commonly recognized. The exhaustive research and breadth of knowledge that Preece reveals in this book are matched by his belief in our ethical responsibilities to animals.Brute Souls, Happy Beasts, and Evolution will be required reading for those from animal scientists to animal philosophers to animal rights activists who have an interest in the history and philosophy of animal ethics.

In the late nineteenth century, a number of prominent reformers wereinfluenced by what Edward Carpenter called "the largersocialism," a philosophy that promised to completely transformsociety, including the place of animals within it. To open a window on late Victorian ideas about animals, Rod Preeceexplores what he calls radical idealism and animal sensibility in thework of George Bernard Shaw, the acknowledged prophet of modernism andconscience of his age. Preece examines Shaw's reformist thought-- particularly the notion of inclusive justice, which aimed toeliminate the suffering of both humans and animals -- in relation tothat of fellow reformers such as Edward Carpenter, Annie Besant, andHenry Salt and the Humanitarian League.This fascinating account of the characters and crusades that shapedShaw's philosophy sheds new light not only on modernist thoughtbut also on an overlooked aspect of the history of the animal rightsmovement.

As the most populous province in Canada, Ontario is a microcosm of the animal welfare issues which beset Western civilization. The authors of this book, chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, find themselves constantly being made aware of the atrocities committed in the Society's jurisdiction. They have been, in turn, puzzled, exasperated and horrified at humanity's cruelty to our fellow sentient beings. The issues discussed in this book are the most contentious in animal welfare disputes - animal experimentation, fur-farming and trapping, the use of animals for human entertainment and the conditions under which animals are raised for human consumption. They are complex issues and should be thought about fairly and seriously. The authors, standing squarely on the side of the animals, suggest ""community"" and ""belonging"" as concepts through which to understand our relationships to other species. They ground their ideas in Wordsworth's ""primal sympathy"" and Jung's ""unconscious identity"" with the animal realm. The philosophy developed in this book embraces common sense and compromise as the surest paths to the goal of animal welfare. It requires respect and consideration for other species while acknowledging our primary obligations to our fellow humans.