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Interview

Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton, the foxhunting philosopher has written a new book on Animal Rights and Wrongs. He talked with Anja Steinbauer about Kant, duties and pet rabbits.

Before we talk about the philosophical issues involved in the discussion of animal welfare, may I ask you whether you had any personal experiences relating to animals which have motivated you to write this book or informed your judgement, or is this purely the distanced work of an ethical theorist?

A loaded question! I hunt, which is the thing that first made me take an interest in all this; obviously there is an argument about hunting which has put these issues into the public domain. I never saw anything morally wrong with hunting but I realised that many people did and still do. So I concluded that I ought to look into the arguments and see exactly how I should approach the matter. That started me off. Partly because of hunting I live in the country and keep animals.

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