Ethics beyond Species and beyond Instincts: A Response to Richard Posner

This chapter responds to Richard Posner's commentaries on the author's view animal rights. It answers the question concerning the reasons for changing the law to entitle animals, and discusses Posner's view on the proper status of animals and on the wider question of the role that ethical argument should play in such questions. The chapter argues that human beings have the ability to go beyond instinct, and that theoretical arguments for rights, of the kind which Posner disparages, can in fact be persuasive.