Alasdair Cochrane
Biographic Data
| ID | 4376051 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alasdair Cochrane |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alasdair |
| FAMILY NAME | Cochrane |
| SIGNATURE | COCHRANE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3112-7210 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 104 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
In Defence of Sentient Rights
The overall aim of Raffael Fasel’s excellent book More Equal than Others is to promote the ‘Species Membership Approach’ (SMA) as the way to award and protect ‘fundamental rights’ (the basic legal rights of individuals that are vital for securing their well-being). It is contrasted with the so-called ‘Meritocratic Approach’ (MA) that assigns rights based on individual characteristics, leaving those without said characteristics excluded from right…
Justice, Democracy, and the Political Turn in Animal Ethics
Martha C. Nussbaum’s Frontiers of Justice was a ground-breaking work of political philosophy, and had particular influence in the field of animal ethics. 1 By arguing that animals ought to be considered recipients of justice, and not just of moral concern, her book helped to launch the so-called ‘political turn in animal ethics’. The political turn accepts familiar claims in animal ethics about the moral status of animals, but extends them in at …
Solidarity with Animals
Veganism as political solidarity
Veganism is commonly described as the attempt to avoid, as far as possible, the exploitation and consumption of animals and animal products. While some people choose the plant-based diet associated with veganism for health or other self-interested reasons, the majority of philosophical work on the topic has been devoted to discussion of the ethical justification of veganism (i.e., to ‘ethical veganism’). Some argue that it is a moral imperative i…
Democratising food
Prevailing political and ethical approaches that have been used to both critique and propose alternatives to the existing food system are lacking. Although food security, food sovereignty, food justice, and food democracy all offer something important to our reflection on the global food system, none is adequate as an alternative to the status quo. This article analyses each in order to identify the prerequisites for such an alternative approach …
Justice Through a Multispecies Lens
Sentientist Politics
There is now widespread agreement that many non-human animals are sentient, and that this fact has important moral and political implications. Indeed, most are in agreement that animal sentience ought to constrain the actions of political institutions, limiting the harms that can be perpetrated against animals. The primary aim of this book is to show that the political implications of animal sentience go even further than this. For this book argu…
Sovereignty for Animals?
Chapter 5 considers whether, within the proposed sentientist global political order, some groups of wild animals ought to be granted their own political communities. Indeed, Donaldson and Kymlicka have claimed that wild animals ought to be recognized as having sovereignty over their territories. This chapter evaluates this claim and concludes that the best way of protecting the basic rights of wild animals is not through granting them sovereignty…
Securing Sentientist Politics
Chapter 7, the final substantive chapter, confronts the radical and ambitious nature of the proposals outlined in the book. Indeed, in light of its aim to outline a realistic utopia , this final chapter asks whether the prescriptions offered are indeed realistic, or whether they are impossible to achieve. This chapter offers some reasons to suggest that the proposals are possible, and provides a sketch of some of the necessary (but not sufficient…
Humane intervention’
This paper explores the international implications of liberal theories which extend justice to sentient animals. In particular, it asks whether they imply that coercive military intervention in a state by external agents to prevent, halt or minimise violations of basic animal rights (‘humane intervention’) can be justified. In so doing, it employs Simon Caney's theory of humanitarian intervention and applies it to non-human animals. It argues tha…
Animal ethics and the political
Some of the most important contributions to animal ethics over the past decade or so have come from political, as opposed to moral, philosophers. As such, some have argued that there been a ‘political turn’ in the field. If there has been such a turn, it needs to be shown that there is something which unites these contributions, and which sets them apart from previous work. We find that some of the features which have been claimed to be shared co…
Animals, Equality and Democracy
Animal Rights Without Liberation
From human rights to sentient rights
This article calls for a paradigm shift in the language, theory and practice of human rights: it calls for human rights to be reconceptualized as sentient rights. It argues that human rights are not qualitatively distinct from the basic entitlements of other sentient creatures, and that attempts to differentiate human rights by appealing to something distinctive about humanity, their unique political function or their universality ultimately fail…
Ownership and Justice for Animals
This article argues that it is not necessary to abolish all incidents of animal ownership in order to achieve justice for them. It claims that ownership does not grant owners a right to absolute control of their property. Rather, it argues that ownership is a much more qualified concept, conveying different rights in different contexts. With this understanding of ownership in mind, the article argues that it is possible for humans to own animals …
Do Animals Have an Interest in Liberty
Proponents of justice for animals often argue that non-human animals have an interest in liberty. Furthermore, they usually claim that this animal interest in liberty is intrinsic rather than instrumental; that is to say, liberty is regarded to be good for animals in itself, irrespective of its contribution to the achievement of other goods, such as pleasure. For this reason they argue that legislating to improve welfare standards in zoos, circus…
Animal Rights and Animal Experiments
Justice Through a Multispecies Lens
Do Animals Have an Interest in Liberty
Proponents of justice for animals often argue that non-human animals have an interest in liberty. Furthermore, they usually claim that this animal interest in liberty is intrinsic rather than instrumental; that is to say, liberty is regarded to be good for animals in itself, irrespective of its contribution to the achievement of other goods, such as pleasure. For this reason they argue that legislating to improve welfare standards in zoos, circus…
Animal ethics and the political
Some of the most important contributions to animal ethics over the past decade or so have come from political, as opposed to moral, philosophers. As such, some have argued that there been a ‘political turn’ in the field. If there has been such a turn, it needs to be shown that there is something which unites these contributions, and which sets them apart from previous work. We find that some of the features which have been claimed to be shared co…
From human rights to sentient rights
This article calls for a paradigm shift in the language, theory and practice of human rights: it calls for human rights to be reconceptualized as sentient rights. It argues that human rights are not qualitatively distinct from the basic entitlements of other sentient creatures, and that attempts to differentiate human rights by appealing to something distinctive about humanity, their unique political function or their universality ultimately fail…
Ownership and Justice for Animals
This article argues that it is not necessary to abolish all incidents of animal ownership in order to achieve justice for them. It claims that ownership does not grant owners a right to absolute control of their property. Rather, it argues that ownership is a much more qualified concept, conveying different rights in different contexts. With this understanding of ownership in mind, the article argues that it is possible for humans to own animals …
Humane intervention’
This paper explores the international implications of liberal theories which extend justice to sentient animals. In particular, it asks whether they imply that coercive military intervention in a state by external agents to prevent, halt or minimise violations of basic animal rights (‘humane intervention’) can be justified. In so doing, it employs Simon Caney's theory of humanitarian intervention and applies it to non-human animals. It argues tha…
Democratising food
Prevailing political and ethical approaches that have been used to both critique and propose alternatives to the existing food system are lacking. Although food security, food sovereignty, food justice, and food democracy all offer something important to our reflection on the global food system, none is adequate as an alternative to the status quo. This article analyses each in order to identify the prerequisites for such an alternative approach …
Animal Rights and Animal Experiments
Animal Rights and Animal Experiments
Ownership and Justice for Animals
This article argues that it is not necessary to abolish all incidents of animal ownership in order to achieve justice for them. It claims that ownership does not grant owners a right to absolute control of their property. Rather, it argues that ownership is a much more qualified concept, conveying different rights in different contexts. With this understanding of ownership in mind, the article argues that it is possible for humans to own animals …
Do Animals Have an Interest in Liberty
Proponents of justice for animals often argue that non-human animals have an interest in liberty. Furthermore, they usually claim that this animal interest in liberty is intrinsic rather than instrumental; that is to say, liberty is regarded to be good for animals in itself, irrespective of its contribution to the achievement of other goods, such as pleasure. For this reason they argue that legislating to improve welfare standards in zoos, circus…
Animal Rights Without Liberation
From human rights to sentient rights
This article calls for a paradigm shift in the language, theory and practice of human rights: it calls for human rights to be reconceptualized as sentient rights. It argues that human rights are not qualitatively distinct from the basic entitlements of other sentient creatures, and that attempts to differentiate human rights by appealing to something distinctive about humanity, their unique political function or their universality ultimately fail…
Animals, Equality and Democracy
Humane intervention’
This paper explores the international implications of liberal theories which extend justice to sentient animals. In particular, it asks whether they imply that coercive military intervention in a state by external agents to prevent, halt or minimise violations of basic animal rights (‘humane intervention’) can be justified. In so doing, it employs Simon Caney's theory of humanitarian intervention and applies it to non-human animals. It argues tha…
Animal ethics and the political
Some of the most important contributions to animal ethics over the past decade or so have come from political, as opposed to moral, philosophers. As such, some have argued that there been a ‘political turn’ in the field. If there has been such a turn, it needs to be shown that there is something which unites these contributions, and which sets them apart from previous work. We find that some of the features which have been claimed to be shared co…
Sentientist Politics
There is now widespread agreement that many non-human animals are sentient, and that this fact has important moral and political implications. Indeed, most are in agreement that animal sentience ought to constrain the actions of political institutions, limiting the harms that can be perpetrated against animals. The primary aim of this book is to show that the political implications of animal sentience go even further than this. For this book argu…
Sovereignty for Animals?
Chapter 5 considers whether, within the proposed sentientist global political order, some groups of wild animals ought to be granted their own political communities. Indeed, Donaldson and Kymlicka have claimed that wild animals ought to be recognized as having sovereignty over their territories. This chapter evaluates this claim and concludes that the best way of protecting the basic rights of wild animals is not through granting them sovereignty…
Securing Sentientist Politics
Chapter 7, the final substantive chapter, confronts the radical and ambitious nature of the proposals outlined in the book. Indeed, in light of its aim to outline a realistic utopia , this final chapter asks whether the prescriptions offered are indeed realistic, or whether they are impossible to achieve. This chapter offers some reasons to suggest that the proposals are possible, and provides a sketch of some of the necessary (but not sufficient…
Democratising food
Prevailing political and ethical approaches that have been used to both critique and propose alternatives to the existing food system are lacking. Although food security, food sovereignty, food justice, and food democracy all offer something important to our reflection on the global food system, none is adequate as an alternative to the status quo. This article analyses each in order to identify the prerequisites for such an alternative approach …
Justice Through a Multispecies Lens
Veganism as political solidarity
Veganism is commonly described as the attempt to avoid, as far as possible, the exploitation and consumption of animals and animal products. While some people choose the plant-based diet associated with veganism for health or other self-interested reasons, the majority of philosophical work on the topic has been devoted to discussion of the ethical justification of veganism (i.e., to ‘ethical veganism’). Some argue that it is a moral imperative i…
Solidarity with Animals
Justice, Democracy, and the Political Turn in Animal Ethics
Martha C. Nussbaum’s Frontiers of Justice was a ground-breaking work of political philosophy, and had particular influence in the field of animal ethics. 1 By arguing that animals ought to be considered recipients of justice, and not just of moral concern, her book helped to launch the so-called ‘political turn in animal ethics’. The political turn accepts familiar claims in animal ethics about the moral status of animals, but extends them in at …
In Defence of Sentient Rights
The overall aim of Raffael Fasel’s excellent book More Equal than Others is to promote the ‘Species Membership Approach’ (SMA) as the way to award and protect ‘fundamental rights’ (the basic legal rights of individuals that are vital for securing their well-being). It is contrasted with the so-called ‘Meritocratic Approach’ (MA) that assigns rights based on individual characteristics, leaving those without said characteristics excluded from right…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Law and economics (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Environmental ethics (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Economic Justice (7 works) · Animal rights (6 works)