35 pages 1 hour read

Peter Singer

Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1977

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Key Figures

Peter Singer

Peter Singer, the author, is a constant voice throughout the work. As not only the narrator who leads the reader through the realities of animal experimentation and “factory farming,” but also the challenger of commonly held beliefs and the inciter of original thoughts concerning “speciesism,” Singer’s characterization is vital to the persuasiveness of his argument. Throughout the work, Singer openly acknowledges the radical and controversial nature of his comparisons of “speciesism” to racism and sexism. His acknowledgement allows him to earn the reader’s trust, just as his decision to include quotes and statistics directly from the scientists and food corporations responsible for animal experiments and “factory farming” does.

Jeremy Bentham

Bentham is the founder of the reforming utilitarian school of morality that Singer frequently cites in Animal Liberation. Singer credits Bentham for the first realization that equal consideration “applies to members of other species as well as to our own” (28). Singer utilizes Bentham’s arguments for his own points on “speciesism.” While Bentham championed these ideas around animal rights, he did continue to eat meat; Singer believes this is antithetical to the philosophies Bentham supports.