Animal Ethics: Questioning the Orthodoxy

Dear Colleagues,

It has become commonplace to refer to the success of animal ethics and the animal turn in philosophy. Since Singer and Regan published their ground-breaking works more than forty years ago, animal ethics has become an institutionalised field of research. This is mirrored in the appearance of entire journals, book series, text books, BA, MA and PhD programmes, conferences, research institutes, etc. devoted to it. To use a metaphor, animal ethics is no longer a toddler, but a teenager, full of energy, beginning to question its heritage and its future. This Special Issue aims to channel this rebellious spirit in order to help lay down the foundations for a prosperous adulthood. Therefore, we invite submissions that call into question the orthodoxy in animal ethics.

In particular, we aim to collect a series of papers that question:

• Classical premises: papers that address key terms and claims that were previously taken for granted, such as speciesism, the dichotomy moral agents/patients, the inherent disvalue of animal pain and suffering, the is/ought gap, etc.
• Classical theories and methodologies: papers that bring innovations into animal ethics by applying methodologies that until recently were often neglected, such as phenomenology, pragmatism, feminism, interdisciplinary and empirically-informed approaches, etc.
• Classical topics: papers that pick up topics that were ignored or undertreated in the canonical texts, such as human interventions in nature, the predator–prey problem, companion animals, cognitive enhancement and disenhancement of animals, representation of animals, duties towards invertebrates, meaning in the lives of animals, etc.

We welcome submissions addressing these and further relevant topics. With this Special Issue, we aim to deliver an overview of new solutions to canonical problems and new problems that were previously unseen. We expect to map out new directions in the field of animal ethics and contribute to clarifying the self-understanding of the discipline.

Please kindly note that for submissions to this special issue there is a word limit of 8,000 words (references not included).

Prof. Herwig Grimm
Dr. Susana Monsó
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.