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Reason, Human Beings and the Houyhnhnms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Anne Maclean
Anne Maclean
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Abstract

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Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy , Volume 63 , Issue 245 , July 1988 , pp. 389 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1988

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References

1 Singer, P., The Expanding Circle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981).Google Scholar

2 Conspicuous representatives of this school of thought are Michael Tooley and John Harris. See for example their contributions to Applied Ethics (Oxford University Press, 1986) edited by Singer, .Google Scholar

3 It is only fair however to draw attention to Singer's remark that ‘it is [not] irrational for people to prefer their own interests and those of their families to the interests of strangers’ (153). Nevertheless, he constantly reiterates the claim that the equality principle is alone ‘the rational component of ethics’ (151). It is also fair to say that Singer himself regards the ‘shift’ to ‘a point of view that is fully universal’ as ‘tremendous’ (113). My point is not simply that it is tremendous, but that contra Singer, there is nothing in ‘the autonomy of reasoning’ (113) which must lead us to make it.

4 Swift, JonathanGulliver's Travels, Part IVGoogle Scholar, ‘A Voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms’. All page references are to the Folio Society edition of 1975.