A monkey-wrenched book

The Great Ape Project (GAP) is an organization demanding that human rights be extended to the great apes, i.e. chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos. Or, as GAP puts it, the non-human great apes. Most of the people involved in GAP seem to be animal rights activists, whose ultimate goal is to end all human use of (non-human) animals. Somebody might argue that GAP is therefore a clever, tactical move to mainstream the animal liberation movement. Since the great apes are very similar to ourselves, very few, and usually not turned into steak, extending human rights to them might be relatively easy. At the same time, this would presumably call into question *all* species barriers between ourselves and the animal kingdom (the rest of it).

The book "The Great Ape Project. Equality Beyond Humanity" was published in 1993. It contains contributions from luminaries such as Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Jane Goodall and Colin McGinn. (Frans de Waal is notably absent, however.) Some theologians have been invited as well, including the curious Stephen R.L. Clark whose personal philosophy attempts to combine Plato, Aristotle, nominalism, Darwin and God!

Now, such a collection simply cannot be boring, can it?

Unfortunately, it can...

The contributions are too short to be really interesting, and I suspect many were written during a coffee break in between two college lectures. "Oh, that reminds me. I have to write something for that darn anthology". Publish or perish? Frankly, the book is a major disappointment. It's also unclear who the intended readership is. It's obviously not the general public, or decision-making politicians. Other philosophy professors, perhaps?

Frankly, the book feels monkey-wrenched!

I can therefore only give it two stars. Besides, the gorilla at the cover of the British edition looks better.

But yes, I was intrigued by Clark, LOL.