Preaches to the converted, but will leave others unconvinced.
Prominent animal-rights activist and lawyer Wise (Rattling the Cage, 2000) makes a case for animal rights based on “practical autonomy.”
He begins with the now-familiar analogy between animals and slaves. His discussion adds nothing new to the parallel, nor does it address the contention that the argument insultingly patronizes slaves, distorting their status as responsible agents both before and after liberation. Wise also compares animals to the mentally deficient and to children. While he mentions the objections to his arguments posed by primatologist Franz de Waals, who insists that rights are tied to responsibilities it would be absurd to enforce on other species and that rights talk debases animals (apes, de Waals has said, aren’t “retarded people in fur coats”), he never really ponders these objections. Instead, Wise seeks to back up his argument by showing that animals can be assigned “autonomy values” based on a scale deriving from developmental psychology. This makes an implicit reference to Kant’s notion of autonomy, or the fundamental and incorrigible freedom of the subject, while adding to it the very un-Kantian features of Piaget’s developmental psychology. In this way, Wise contextualizes the freedom of the subject as a result of a psychological process with certain supposedly extra-species features. He then adduces seven cases (honeybees, African gray parrots, elephants, dolphins, gorillas, orangutans, and dogs) in which he gives reasons to assign autonomy values. Except for the chapters on bees and elephants, he concentrates less on ethological studies than on human-to-animal communications studies, such as that conducted on African gray parrots at MIT. From the animal as communicator, Wise goes through other developmental tests, like “mirror self recognition.” Unfortunately, his extrapolation of practical autonomy gradients seems dubious on ethological grounds, as well as displaying a contradiction in the animal-rights position: far from combating anthropocentrism, this procedure universalizes it.
Preaches to the converted, but will leave others unconvinced.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7382-0340-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Perseus
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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