Book chapter
Sharing Our Lives with Other Species: The Nature of Our Relationships with Our Animal Companions
The Ethics of Relationships
Oxford University Press
2025
DOI: 10.1093/9780198928188.003.0013
Abstract
Many people resist taking literally any claim to the effect that we can be friends with our animal companions in the same way that we can be friends with other human beings: they insist that we can have animals as pets, we can own animals, we can be the guardians of animals, but we cannot be friends with them. When we describe a dog or a cat as our best friend, we can only mean that, such people say, in some derivative, lesser sense of ‘friend’. It is not really important, however, precisely how we categorize our relationships with our animal companions. Rather, we need to see just how complex such relationships are and to recognize their unique value. While some standard objections to a straightforward claim that we can be friends with our dogs and cats contain a grain of truth, they are also misleading and require more nuance. There are aspects of our relationships with our companion animals that are just like features of the best sorts of friendships. Because friendship itself is a cluster concept, our relationships to animals actually reveal the range of that concept. However, what matters most is seeing how valuable aspects of our relationships to human friends are replicated, but in novel ways, in our relationships to our animal companions. Thus, our animal companions are not lesser than or substitutes for human friends and loved ones, but rather provide us with unique and irreplaceable opportunities for connection and love.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Sharing Our Lives with Other Species: The Nature of Our Relationships with Our Animal Companions
- Creators
- Diane Jeske
- Contributors
- Monika Betzler (Editor) - Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), Munich, GermanyJörg Löschke (Editor) - University of Stuttgart
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- The Ethics of Relationships
- DOI
- 10.1093/9780198928188.003.0013
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press; Oxford
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2025
- Academic Unit
- Philosophy
- Record Identifier
- 9984963627502771
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