Naturalistic Conceptions of Human and Animal Rights: From Human Exceptionalism to Transspecies Universalism

Abstract

This chapter investigates whether the extension of human rights to animals can be placed on a sound conceptual footing. Can (nonhuman) animals have human rights? The starting point of this inquiry is the ‘traditional’ or ‘orthodox’ understanding of human rights, which is the naturalistic conception. This much can be said already: considering the contested nature and philosophical foundations of human rights, there cannot be a simple, let alone single, answer to the animal question.