Anthrozoology

This groundbreaking work of both theoretical and experiential thought by a leading ecological philosopher and animal liberation scientist departs from every animal rights, ecological aesthetics, comparative ethology, traditional animal and plant behaviorist work by venturing into a new frontier of ethical anthrozoological studies. What distinguishes Tobias' book is both its on-the-ground research in nearly 80 countries, and breadth of interdisciplinary humanities and sciences; a Renaissance-like treatise in the realm of John Ruskin's Unto This Last, the late 19th century collection of essays that would transform the thinking of a Mahatma Gandhi. Tobias brings to bear upon this urgently needed text, 45 years of research in ecological anthropology, animal protection, comparative ethics, literature, spirituality, animal and plant behavior, biocultural heritage contexts from every continent, and a deeply metaphysical set of perspectives that will set this book apart from any other in the vast realms of natural history and ecology. This lean and elegant text argues that human beings are obsessed with other species and aesthetic landscapes precisely because we lack by our evolutionary self-confidence the very coherence that is everywhere around us abundantly demonstrated. What our species has deemed to be superior is, according to Tobias, a tenuous argument predicated on the brink of our species' self-destruction, giving rise to a most unique proposition: We either recognize the miracle of other sentient intelligence, sophistication, and genius, or risk enshrining the shortest lived epitaph of any known vertebrate in earth's 4.1 billion years of life. This is a deeply provocative work of philosophical premises and hypotheses that is likely to stir uneasiness and debate for many decades to come - much like the theories of group fitness and sociobiology from E. O. Wilson- from one of the world's most influential ecological philosophers.