Perspectival pluralism for animal welfare
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2020 |
Authors: |
Walter Veit, Heather Browning |
Publication/Journal: |
European Journal for Philosophy of Science |
Keywords: |
animal welfare, methodological anarchism, models, perspectivism, pluralism |
ISBN: |
1879-4920 |
Abstract:
Animal welfare has a long history of disregard. While in recent decades the study of animal welfare has become a scientific discipline of its own, the difficulty of measuring animal welfare can still be vastly underestimated. There are three primary theories, or perspectives, on animal welfare – biological functioning, natural living and affective state. These come with their own diverse methods of measurement, each providing a limited perspective on an aspect of welfare. This paper describes a perspectival pluralist account of animal welfare, in which all three theoretical perspectives and their multiple measures are necessary to understand this complex phenomenon and provide a full picture of animal welfare. This in turn will offer us a better understanding of perspectivism and pluralism itself.