Pleasurable Kingdom

Pleasurable Kingdom PDF Author: Jonathan Balcombe
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230552277
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The recognition of animal pain and stress, once controversial, is now acknowledged by legislation in many countries, but there is no formal recognition of animals' ability to feel pleasure. Pleasurable Kingdom is the first book for lay-readers to present new evidence that animals--like humans--enjoy themselves. It debunks the popular perception that life for most is a continuous, grim struggle for survival and the avoidance of pain. Instead it suggests that creatures from birds to baboons feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics, and more. Combining rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdotes, leading animal behavior researcher Jonathan Balcombe proposes that the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ethical ramifications for both science and society.

Pleasurable Kingdom

Pleasurable Kingdom PDF Author: Jonathan Balcombe
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230552277
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
The recognition of animal pain and stress, once controversial, is now acknowledged by legislation in many countries, but there is no formal recognition of animals' ability to feel pleasure. Pleasurable Kingdom is the first book for lay-readers to present new evidence that animals--like humans--enjoy themselves. It debunks the popular perception that life for most is a continuous, grim struggle for survival and the avoidance of pain. Instead it suggests that creatures from birds to baboons feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics, and more. Combining rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdotes, leading animal behavior researcher Jonathan Balcombe proposes that the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ethical ramifications for both science and society.

The Exultant Ark

The Exultant Ark PDF Author: Jonathan Peter Balcombe
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520948645
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Nature documentaries often depict animal life as a grim struggle for survival, but this visually stunning book opens our eyes to a different, more scientifically up-to-date way of looking at the animal kingdom. In more than one hundred thirty striking images, The Exultant Ark celebrates the full range of animal experience with dramatic portraits of animal pleasure ranging from the charismatic and familiar to the obscure and bizarre. These photographs, windows onto the inner lives of pleasure seekers, show two polar bears engaged in a bout of wrestling, hoary marmots taking time for a friendly chase, Japanese macaques enjoying a soak in a hot spring, a young bull elk sticking out his tongue to catch snowflakes, and many other rewarding moments. Biologist and best-selling author Jonathan Balcombe is our guide, interpreting the images within the scientific context of what is known about animal behavior. In the end, old attitudes fall away as we gain a heightened sense of animal individuality and of the pleasures that make life worth living for all sentient beings.

Restoring the Pleasure

Restoring the Pleasure PDF Author: Clifford L. Penner
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 0718084683
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Do you need help restoring the pleasure to your marriage? Whether you’ve been married a day, a decade, or half a century, if your sexual relationship is marred by pain, tension, or disappointment—you are not alone. Thousands of couples struggle with sexual problems that keep their marriages from being all that God intended them to be. But there is hope! Now, sexual therapists and best-selling authors Joyce and Cliff Penner share their proven methods in this comprehensive, easy-to-follow book of detailed explanations, realistic anecdotes, and clearly written exercises. Providing the biblical basis for the sexual relationship, as well as helpful diagnostic aids, the Penners help you improve communication and educate yourselves about your God-given sexual response. Then they lead you step-by-step through creative (and fun) sexual-retraining assignments to help you overcome various problems. The Penners provide straightforward advice and reassuring encouragement to help you start restoring the pleasure to your marriage. Beginning counselors and pastors will also find this an invaluable resource for helping others overcome their sexual barriers.

Considering Animals

Considering Animals PDF Author: Dr Carol Freeman
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409482316
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Considering Animals draws on the expertise of scholars trained in the biological sciences, humanities, and social sciences to investigate the complex and contradictory relationships humans have with nonhuman animals. Taking their cue from the specific 'animal moments' that punctuate these interactions, the essays engage with contemporary issues and debates central to human-animal studies: the representation of animals, the practical and ethical issues inseparable from human interactions with other species, and, perhaps most challengingly, the compelling evidence that animals are themselves considering beings. Case studies focus on issues such as animal emotion and human 'sentimentality'; the representation of animals in contemporary art and in recent films such as March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, and Grizzly Man; animals' experiences in catastrophic events such as Hurricane Katrina and the SARS outbreak; and the danger of overvaluing the role humans play in the earth's ecosystems. From Marc Bekoff's moving preface through to the last essay, Considering Animals foregrounds the frequent, sometimes uncanny, exchanges with other species that disturb our self-contained existences and bring into focus our troubled relationships with them. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, this collection demonstrates that, in the face of species extinction and environmental destruction, the roles and fates of animals are too important to be left to any one academic discipline.

The Philosophy of Pleasure

The Philosophy of Pleasure PDF Author: Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351605941
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
The experience of pleasure, alongside pain, is a primary element of human life. It rules our instincts and desires for food, sex and avoiding various forms of harm. Crucial to psychological and social well-being, it has preoccupied philosophers from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill and plays a fundamental role in moral and ethical theory, especially utilitarianism. More recently, it has become a central subject for psychologists, biologists and neuroscientists. Yet it remains an elusive and deceptively difficult concept. What is pleasure? How does it differ from happiness? Should we value pleasure? Should we value only pleasure? Which theories of pleasure are most plausible? In this rigorous and comprehensive introduction to the topic, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek unpacks and assesses these questions and many more, including: The history of pleasure from ancient China, India and Greece to modern times Pleasure, sensation, feeling and consciousness What scientific research reveals about the nature of pleasure – can pleasure be measured scientifically? "Higher" and "lower" pleasures The relation between happiness and pleasure Pleasure and pain Pleasure and animals Pleasure as an ultimate good and the relation between pleasure and rationality. The Philosophy of Pleasure: An Introduction is essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.

Foucault and Animals

Foucault and Animals PDF Author: Matthew Chrulew
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004332235
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Foucault and Animals is the first collection of its kind to explore the relevance of Michel Foucault’s thought for the question of the animal. Chrulew and Wadiwel bring together essays from emerging and established scholars that illuminate the place of animals and animality within Foucault’s texts, and open up his highly influential range of concepts and methods to different domains of human-animal relations including experimentation, training, zoological gardens, pet-keeping, agriculture, and consumption. Touching on themes such as madness and discourse, power and biopolitics, government and ethics, and sexuality and friendship, the volume takes the fields of Foucault studies and human-animal studies into promising new directions.

Second Nature

Second Nature PDF Author: Jonathan Balcombe
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0230613624
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
With vivid stories and entertaining anecdotes, Balcombe gives the human pedestal a strong shake while opening the door into the inner lives of the animals themselves.

Pigeon

Pigeon PDF Author: Barbara Allen
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1861897111
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Our frequent urban companion, cooing in the eaves of train stations or scavenging underfoot for breadcrumbs and discarded French fries, the pigeon has many detractors—and even some fans. Written out of love for and fascination with this humble yet important bird, Barbara Allen’s Pigeon explores its cultural significance, as well as its similarities to and differences from its close counterpart, the dove. While the dove is seen as a symbol of love, peace, and goodwill, the pigeon is commonly perceived as a filthy, ill-mannered flying rodent, a “rat with wings.” Readers will find in Pigeon an enticing exploration of the historical and contemporary bonds between humans and these two unique and closely related birds. For polluting statues and architecture, the pigeon has earned a bad reputation, but Barbara Allen offers several examples of the bird’s importance—as a source of food and fertilizer, a bearer of messages during times of war, a pollution monitor, and an aid to Charles Darwin in his pivotal research on evolutionary theory. Allen also comments on the literary love and celebration of pigeons and doves in the work of such writers and poets as Shakespeare, Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Proust, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Along the way, Allen corrects the many stereotypes about pigeons in the hope that the rich history of one of the oldest human-animal partnerships will be both admired and celebrated.

Wild Justice

Wild Justice PDF Author: Jessica Pierce
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459605543
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a youn...

Animals and Ethics 101

Animals and Ethics 101 PDF Author: Nathan Nobis
Publisher: Open Philosophy Press
ISBN: 0692471286
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
Animals and Ethics 101 helps readers identify and evaluate the arguments for and against various uses of animals, such: - Is it morally wrong to experiment on animals? Why or why not? - Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Why or why not? - Are we morally obligated to provide pets with veterinary care (and, if so, how much?)? Why or why not? And other challenging issues and questions. Developed as a companion volume to an online "Animals & Ethics" course, it is ideal for classroom use, discussion groups or self study. The book presupposes no conclusions on these controversial moral questions about the treatment of animals, and argues for none either. Its goal is to help the reader better engage the issues and arguments on all sides with greater clarity, understanding and argumentative rigor. Includes a bonus chapter, "Abortion and Animal Rights: Does Either Topic Lead to the Other?"