The Problem of Animal Pain

The Problem of Animal Pain

Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion Series Editors: Yujin Nagasawa and Erik Wielenberg Titles include: Zain Ali FAITH, PHILOSOPHY AND THE REFLECTIVE MUSLIM István Aranyosi GOD, MIND AND LOGICAL SPACE: A Revisionary Approach to Divinity Trent Dougherty THE PROBLEM OF ANIMAL PAIN: A Theodicy for All Creatures Great and Small Benedikt Paul Göcke A THEORY OF THE ABSOLUTE Yujin Nagasawa ( editor ) SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Aaron Rizzieri PRAGMATIC ENCROACHMENT, RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND PRACTICE Aaron Smith THINKING ABOUT RELIGION: Extending the Cognitive Science of Religion Eric Charles Steinhart YOUR DIGITAL AFTERLIVES: Computational Theories of Life after Death Forthcoming titles: Michael Sudduth A PHILOSOPHICAL CRITIQUE OF EMPIRICAL ARGUMENTS FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion Series Standing Order ISBN 978 0 230 35443 2 Hardback ( outside North America only ) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

The Problem of Animal Pain A Theodicy for All Creatures Great and Small Trent Dougherty Baylor University, USA

Trent Dougherty 2014 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-34995-1 ISBN 978-1-137-44317-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137443175 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Transferred to Digital Printing in 2015

I dedicate this book to Caesar, the best chocolate lab ever; Roxy, the youngest kitten I ever rescued and the first cat the kids ever got; Bagheera, the blackest cat who found us on the blackest night; Ka, the goldenest snake, and to the memories of Zeke, my first very own lab who was killed by a car on her second birthday (I understand Zeke is a nontraditional name for a female anything); to the memory of Schneeflocke, the first cat to come to Sarah and I and whom we lost when Sarah was pregnant with Fiona; and to the memories of Chickpea and Azure, whom we lost to disease very recently to this writing, even after the expert care of Fiona. They had short lives, but they were sweet, thanks to her. Sadly, also I must mention Roxy, the part Mainecoon we lost during the writing of this book. A tiny, abandoned kitten, I saved her from Toms under the bushes of a building on campus. She traveled with us from Texas to Minnesota to Kansas City to South Bend in the car. She is very sorely missed. The most recent loss during the writing of this book alas this acknowledgement has become a catalog of sorrow is Lyndsay s Blitz. May he run with Caesar and Zeke on the golden shores. We miss these companions dearly and daily. Ka died while I was finishing the proofs of this book at St. Andrew s. We are very happy, though, for the new friends who have come our way: Rocky, She-her-kahn, and Mr. Skittles, three rescued cats, and a pair of sister-pups, Daria and Sophie, who in six months now have never slept in any other configuration than a pile. We are lucky to have Alli and Jordan to care for them while we are in St. Andrew s and Oxford. We miss them and are ready to see them.

Contents Series Editors Preface Acknowledgments x xi 1 The Plan of This Book 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Epistemology 5 1.3 Not-so-bare bare theism 7 1.4 Two ways of learning what theism entails 12 2 The Problem of Animal Pain 16 2.1 Stating the problem 16 2.1.1 What is the problem? 16 2.1.2 Getting more precise 19 2.1.3 Theism as hypothesis 24 2.2 How shall I understand pain and suffering 25 2.3 The amount of suffering 31 3 The Bayesian Argument from Animal Pain 36 3.1 Formalizing the problem: a Bayesian approach 36 3.1.1 The formal structure of the argument from animal suffering 36 3.1.2 The simplicity of the hypotheses 38 3.1.3 The Bayes factor 42 3.1.4 Taking stock thus far 43 3.2 A narrative approach to assigning probabilities 46 3.3 Criteria for success: between theodicy and defense 51 4 Is There Really a Problem?: The Challenge of Neo-Cartesianism 56 4.1 A starting point: common sense and scientific consensus 57 4.1.1 Common sense epistemology 57 4.1.2 Scientific consensus 61 4.2 A statement of the objection 64 4.2.1 Introduction 64 4.2.2 Kinds of neo-cartesianism and how they function epistemically 65 vii

viii Contents 4.2.3 Some motivation for neo-cartesianism 69 4.2.3.1 From philosophy: HOT of consciousness 71 4.2.3.2 From neuroanatomy: the lobotomy argument 74 5 There Is a Problem: The Defeat of Neo-Cartesianism 77 5.1 Initial reply to neo-cartesianism: moving away from rationalism 77 5.1.1 Pain as emotion-like 78 5.1.2 Non-conceptual knowledge of pain 82 5.1.3 Recap 86 5.2 The problem of primate pain or seeing through the mirror test 86 5.2.1 A statement of the problem 86 5.2.2 Objection from Carruthers 91 5.2.3 A final argument 94 6 The Saint-Making Theodicy I: Negative Phase 96 6.1 Some necessary ground clearing 96 6.2 Axiology and teleology 103 6.3 The defeat of evil 108 7 The Saint-Making Theodicy II: Positive Phase 118 7.1 The fine-tuning argument for theism from evil 118 7.2 Application to the Bayesian argument from evil 122 7.3 Too much suffering? What s the evidence? 127 7.4 A narrative approach 131 8 Animal Saints 134 8.1 Doubt about animal soul-making from within the ranks 136 8.1.1 A cause of the lacuna in previous soul-making theodicies 137 8.1.2 Some consequences of the lacuna 139 8.2 Deification: human and non-human 143 8.3 The transcendental argument for animal deification 145 8.4 Identity issues: objections to the animal deification 148 9 Animal Afterlife 154 9.1 Animal souls 155 9.1.1 Biblical support for animal souls 155 9.1.2 The traditional Christian view about animal souls 158 9.1.3 Philosophical support for animal souls 162 9.1.3.1 The knowledge argument 163

Contents ix 9.1.3.2 Qualia: inverted and absent 164 9.1.4 Conclusion 166 9.2 Gappy existence 166 9.2.1 Introduction 166 9.2.2 Natural skepticism about gappy existence 166 9.2.3 A description of the model 167 9.2.4 Split brains: the terrible tale of twins Ted and Todd 170 9.2.5 Objections to the present view of resurrection 173 Concluding Summary 179 Bibliography 183 Index 195

Series Editors Preface The philosophy of religion has experienced a welcome revitalization over the last fifty years or so and is now thriving. Our hope with the Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion series is to contribute to the continued vitality of the philosophy of religion by producing works that truly break new ground in the field. Accordingly, each book in this series advances some debate in the philosophy of religion by offering a novel argument to establish a strikingly original thesis or approaching an ongoing dispute from a radically new point of view. Each book accomplishes this by utilizing recent developments in empirical sciences or cutting-edge research in foundational areas of philosophy, or by adopting historically neglected approaches. We expect the series to enrich debates within the philosophy of religion both by expanding the range of positions and arguments on offer and establishing important links between the philosophy of religion and other fields, including not only other areas of philosophy but the empirical sciences as well. Our ultimate aim, then, is to produce a series of exciting books that explore and expand the frontiers of the philosophy of religion and connect it with other areas of inquiry. We are grateful to Palgrave Macmillan for taking on this project as well as to the authors of the books in the series. Yujin Nagasawa Erik J. Wielenberg x

Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to editors Yujin Nagasawa and Erik Wielenberg for encouraging me to pursue this project. Since the ideas in this book are primarily inspired by both John Hick (who, God rest his soul, died while I was writing it) and C.S. Lewis (whose 50th memorial passed while I was writing it), it is a special blessing that it is being published by a publishing tradition Palgrave Macmillan in which their major works appeared. I would also like to express thanks to Alex Pruss an Anselmian colleague for bringing the series to my attention and bringing my work to the attention of Yujin and Erik. We may have made the connection anyway, but it sweetens the deal that Alex was the bridge. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame where major parts of the manuscript were written, to Mike Rea as its exemplary director, and to the other fellows especially Ty Goldschmidt for many great conversations, and to Beth Seacord and Dave Anderson whose work tied in with my own. Beth gave me a steady stream of excellent feedback on my writing and ideas and provided guidance to the literature on animal suffering. She is writing her dissertation (at Colorado with Wes Morriston and Michael Tooley) on the problem of animal pain, and her work will be much more detailed than my own in many ways. Also writing a dissertation (at Baylor, with Jon Kvanvig) on the problem of animal pain is Matt Douglas, who was helpful at various stages of writing. Faith Pawl s dissertation (at Saint Louis University with Eleonore Stump) also relates to animal pain especially as it relates to primates. These three students will likely usher in a new wave of philosophical and theological consideration of animal suffering. Eleonore Stump has been an inspiration in the writing of this book in an interesting way. Not only has her work in philosophical theology been an inspiration generally, but she shares a concern for those who face certain cognitive challenges in life, such as those animals and people with special mental challenges face (Temple Grandin s work indicates the tie between the two). More specifically, her Wandering in the Darkness came out during the writing of this book, and confirmed and clarified many of my own speculative wanderings as I strove for a better understanding of the nature of the problem of evil. Richard Swinburne has been a huge support to me for the whole xi

xii Acknowledgments of my career, and it is obvious to see the ways he s influenced me. Alvin Plantinga also gave me very helpful feedback on portions of the MS. Some of my ideas that led me to the literature on pain and emotions started with conversations with Linda Zagzebski. Almost every idea I ve ever had has been discussed with either Alex Pruss or Jon Kvanvig, and it is impossible to footnote all the places where their influence is at work. My stay at Notre Dame would have been impossible without the generous support of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and its director Byron Johnson, and the tireless advocacy of my chair, Mike Beaty. The proofs were completed while at the University if St. Andrew s and I thank the Faculty of Philosophy for an office at the beautiful and aptly-named Edgecliffe and for St. Mary s Divinity School for an office in their historic 16 th century offices. I have been thinking about these matters since childhood and quite seriously since college. I was reinvigorated to this inquiry by a class I have taught at Baylor University since the Fall of 2010 on the thought of C.S. Lewis as well as an independent study with Lyndsay McReynolds and Josh Jeffrey (whose term paper was on certain problems with Lewis s view of animal resurrection with which I have yet to find a satisfactory solution). I benefited from the paper and discussion of Collin Huse who did a similar independent study with me. My superb colleague Bob Roberts was an invaluable help in conversation and in his excellent work on emotions. His influence on this work is inestimable and is too pervasive to footnote adequately, even though it may appear I have failed to take his excellent advice in places. Kate Zeigerer (DVM, Tufts, Animal Care Specialist/Veterinary Medical Officer, USDA) was a constant source of encouragement, enthusiasm, and information throughout. Her influence is also pervasive on this book (though government regulations require me to say that she never acted in any official capacity as advisor to the book). I received wonderful feedback from all of the students who read the penultimate draft of the manuscript for a graduate seminar: Nick Colgrove, Brandon Dahm, Blake McAllister, Dan Padgett, Rebecca Phillips, and Allison Thornton. Each one made a valuable contribution to the book. Nick must be singled out, however, for having the extreme misfortune of being my RA during the final stages of the book. It is not mere acknowledgments boilerplate to say the whole thing may have fallen apart at the end if not for his and his wife Bethany s support. Chris Tweedt was my previous RA and also worked extensively on the manuscript.

Acknowledgments xiii Finally, I wish to thank my beloved wife Sarah, and my kids Fiona, Annabelle, Jeep, and Sam who are such great animal lovers and such great animal care-takers (indeed, they have a knack for discerning and promoting the conditions of flourishing of every living thing).