SummaryWithin thirty years from 1870, English physiology was transformed from a subsidiary branch of anatomy to an experimental school of international reputation. An inevitable consequence of this metamorphosis was disclosure of the intrinsic nature of the new discipline, in particular by Burdon Sanderson's Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory (1873). By transmitting Continental methods to England, the Handbook gave direction to its awakening science, and at the same time represented a provocative target for attacks by the antivivisectionists. In uncertain defence of (...) their methods, the beleaguered physiologists exposed awkward inconsistencies of word and deed that reflected fundamental (if not unique) problems of internal ethics and of public accountability. Though to many the discipline remained technically brutal and aesthetically coarse, the necessary suffering of the intuitionists' nightmares could soon, by the growing and undeniable impact of therapeutic medicine, be presented as a justifiable price for the utilitarian dream. (shrink)

Philosophers have taken some salutary exercise in recent years—notably in this journal—on the question of the rights of non-human animals and the obligations of human to non-human individuals and species. In so contentious an area there has been striking unanimity on two aspects. One of these is that, irrespective of the merits of the arguments on specific issues, this is a matter which is bound to affect the conduct of our lives. The other is that, other things being equal, it (...) is prima facie wrong to be cruel to animals. (shrink)

译自: Philosophy and sociology of science: an introduction/Stewart Richards. -- 英国: Blackwell, 1983.