Animal Liberation

Introduction

Singer’s book grew out of a 1973 review essay of the same title in The New York Review of Books and appeared in 1975. Its key concept, “speciesism” – a term coined by the psychologist Richard Ryder – names the practice of giving less weight to the interests of beings simply because they belong to another species, by analogy with racism and sexism. Two long chapters document animal experiments and factory farming; others deal with vegetarianism and the history of human attitudes to animals. Singer argues from the equal consideration of interests rather than from animal rights. The book is regarded as a founding text of the modern animal protection movement; revised editions appeared in 1990 and, as Animal Liberation Now, in 2023.

Connections

Builds on

• An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation1789 · Jeremy Bentham

Taken up in

• Practical Ethics1979 · Peter Singer

More works by Peter Singer

• 1972Famine, Affluence, and Morality
• 1979Practical Ethics