Reviews and Evaluations of In Defense of Dolphins: The New Moral Frontier
[In Defense of Dolphins] is a superb intellectual achievement. It combines mastery of scientific evidence together with acute ethical analysis. It is a seminal contribution to the literature on animal ethics.Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
*****
In Defense of Dolphins - the New Moral Frontier is the most important book ever written about these animals.
This is a book that has been crying out to be produced, but one that could only be properly written now. Professor White has carefully, indeed painstakingly, taken the latest scientific research and used it to address the key questions that make the case for dolphinkind to be given 'moral standing' or 'rights'. His case is compelling and the book is both fascinating as an exercise in the systematic distillation of information, as well as its status as the key document that makes a case for the better treatment of dolphins.
It is also highly readable and rich with remarkable insights into dolphin intelligence and behaviour. This is a book that everyone interested in dolphins should read - and as the human race is rightly fascinated in dolphinkind it should have a wide readership. Certainly it deserves this.
In Defense of Dolphins - the New Moral Frontier gives the human race a new and major challenge. We can no longer pretend that dolphins are just 'animals' - unthinking, simple, reactive, living mechanisms - they are far more than this; they are the 'people' of the sea (or as Thomas White concludes 'at least nonhuman persons'). It is clearly no longer acceptable to cause dolphins painful deaths in nets or incarcerate them in aquaria, or otherwise hunt or persecute them. We need to rethink the way that we are treating them - and we need to do this quickly. This is now an urgent obligation for our species.
Mark Simmonds, International Director of Science
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Brookfield House
Chippenham, UK
*****
Thomas White does the research and brings the evidence for psychological complexity in dolphins to his readers in a compelling manner. Amidst the ongoing worldwide exploitation of dolphins in drive hunts and captivity he challenges all of us to rethink how we treat these beings. This wonderful and important book could not have come at a better time.
Lori Marino, Ph.D., Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program, Emory University
*****
In Defense of Dolphins is a much needed look at the current status of ethics and treatment of dolphins in a variety of conditions. Dr. White reviews current research to argue that we should reanalyze and reconsider some of the treatment issues around dolphins and human activity. As research and education strives to improve our world and our treatment of the inhabitants in it, so does this extensive exploration of the issues around another intelligent species.
Denise L. Herzing, Ph.D., Research Director, Wild Dolphin Project
*****
Choice, February 2008--Vat 45, no. 06.
White (Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles) is a distinguished, well-published philosopher who is also scientific adviser to the Wild Dolphin Project and adviser to the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. His book is clearly written, carefully reasoned, and easily read. He argues that dolphins are self-aware and intelligent, with emotions, personalities, and the capacity to control their actions. Investigating the dolphin brain, cetacean emotional capacities and social intelligence, and the differing evolutionary histories of humans and dolphins, White argues that the scientific evidence strongly warrants the claim that dolphins have moral standing as persons. The human race consists of human persons, but dolphins are nonhuman persons and should be valued and treated as such. Here White's evidence goes beyond similar arguments in Mary Anne Warren's Moral Status (CH, Jun'98, 35-5697) and Peter Singer's Practical Ethics (2nd ed., 1993; 1st, CH, Sep'80) by providing empirical and scientific substantiation about the personhood and, by implication, the moral standing of dolphins. The fishing industry kills and injures dolphins. The entertainment industry, the therapeutic industry, and the military all use, abuse, and kill dolphins. These actions, White argues, are ethically indefensible, given the moral standing of dolphins as persons. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—R. Werner, Hamilton College
*****
"Alien intelligence" "'nonhuman person," or . . . ? You will never think about dolphins the same way after reading this insightful and thought-provoking new book.
Jerry R. Schubel, Ph.D., President and CEO, Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, California
