The Case Against Human Exceptionalism

"Radical Animal Law" argues that animal views should inform our ethical framework.

Updated May 23, 2026 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

"Anthropocentrism is at the root of all abuse of our fellow creatures on earth — the logically unsupportable belief that humans are the only species on the planet worthy of consideration." – Sir Brian May, founding member of Queen and Save Me Trust. 1

The mental territory we can claim to be 'uniquely human' is shrinking at an alarming rate. Wasps can distinguish faces, dolphins call one another by name, pigs use tools, zebra finches dream, parrots go on Zoom, and sometimes crayfish get anxious . Chimps, meanwhile, exist in complex cultures, rather like ours, with fashion trends . –Martha Gill 2

For far too long, self-serving speciesist anthropocentrism has dominated how we view and position nonhuman animals (animals) in the natural world. Arguing for human exceptionalism while placing animals below and separate from ourselves, misleads some people into thinking we are above and separate from other species—often cashed out as we are "better" and "more valuable“ than them— a myth that doesn't represent what solid transdisciplinary science has repeatedly shown . 3

In fact, nonhumans are not sub-human , and viewing all species as unique and important in their own ways is a better representation of the members of many earth's diverse communities, none being better or more valuable than the others. These are among the many reasons why I found Dr. Josephine Donovan's recent book Radical Natural Law: The Critical Standpoint of Animals and Nature to be an important and enlightening read in which she successfully decenters humans, recenters other animals, and offers a holistic view of the natural world.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Radical Natural Law ?

Josephine Donovan: In previous work, I made the point that while philosophers are in heated debate about how we humans should treat animals, they never consider that animals might have something to say about the matter. (See especially my book Animals, Mind, and Matter: The Inside Story and an article “Feminism and the Treatment of Animals: From Care to Dialogue”.)

So I proposed that animal ethics—that is, principles about how animals should be treated—should be based in large part on what animals are telling us about how they wish to be treated, what their needs are. In Radical Natural Law I supported this idea with the critical theoretical premise that treatment of humans should be rooted in the articulated standpoint of the humans in question. In particular, I used the work of Ernst Bloch in this regard, who held that natural law resides in the expressed resistance of the oppressed to abusive treatment. While Bloch generally restricts his notion to humans, I extended it to animals. Radical natural law lies in animals’ (and other natural entities’) expressed resistance to abusive and degrading treatment, their implicit articulation of need.

MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?

JD: I have written several books and articles in the area of animal ethics. In particular, I (and others) introduced feminist care theory into the discussion. Care theory is a dialogical theory, so it naturally leads into the concept of radical natural law that I lay out in the new book.

MB: Who do you hope to reach?

JD: I hope the book will establish a new theoretical basis for animal treatment. To date, the dominant theories are utilitarian and Kantian, which I have argued are inadequate. More broadly, I hope that people will start taking seriously the idea that animals’ opinions about how they wish to be treated should be attended to and heeded by humans.

Much new information about animal intelligence and communicative capacities (some of which you have contributed) is coming to light, which will inevitably make humans take animals more seriously in general and therefore pay more attention (one hopes) and give more weight to their expressed resistances to harmful treatment. Cows escape from loading ramps, chimps escape from laboratories, fish swim away, dogs snarl and bite back. Animals commonly express themselves. But in the past people have dismissed and overridden the animals’ opinions in favor of speciesist behavior that benefits humans.

MB: What are some of the topics you consider and what are some of your major messages?

JD: I treat various philosophical traditions that support the general thesis of the book, starting with the Stoics’ ideas about natural law, which prevailed until the early modern era, when natural law became restricted to humans and knowable only through the human intellect (in the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson famously considered it “self-evident” to thoughtful humans). However, several modern philosophical schools, including the Hungarian Marxists, the Oxford women, feminist care theorists, and various eco-theorists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have returned to or reinvented the concept of natural law to include animals and what they think, feel, and need. This newly reconceived radical natural law provides a philosophical grounding for animal ethics.

The basic thesis of the book is summarized in its first and last sentences; citing Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass , I propose that we ask the goldenrod, the meadowlarks, and the monarch butterflies how they would feel about having their habitat turned into a parking lot. Or ask the caged chimp how she feels about her confinement; or ask the pig heading to slaughter how he feels about the situation or the mouse being reengineered genetically to carry human diseases. We know what the answers to these questions will be. Let us heed them.

MB: How does your work differ from others who are concerned with some of the same general topics?

JD: To date most theories about animal treatment have not included animals’ own opinions about their treatment, so Radical Natural Law is an attempt to restore their standpoints to the discussion.

MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about this important topic they will treat nonhuman animals and their homes with more respect and compassion?

JD: Yes, I think as people begin to appreciate more about the complexities of animal intelligence and emotional lives, reductive opinions about animals as “just animals”--and thus unworthy of serious consideration ethically—will drop away. A recognition of animals’ subjectivity will, I hope, lead to a change in their current status as soulless objects in the law, in commerce, and in laboratory science. Radical Natural Law provides a philosophical and theoretical basis for such a transformation.

In conversation with Dr. Josephine Donovan , Professor Emerita of English at the University of Maine, USA. She is the author or editor of 13 books, including Women and the Rise of the Novel, 1405-1726, which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, After the Fall , and The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics (co-edited with Carol J. Adams).

In Jane Goodall at 90: Celebrating an Astonishing Lifetime of Science, Advocacy, Humanitarianism, Hope, and Peace, page 41.
Gill, Martha. When dogs recall toys, and horses plan ahead, are animals so different from us? The Guardian. September 7, 2024.
Sub-Human? The Psychology of Anthropocentric Exceptionalism ; "Just Preservation" Favors the Intrinsic Value of Animals' ; A Mindset for Normalizing Coexisting, Rewilding, and Caring ; "The Arrogant Ape": A Strong Case Against Human Superiority ; How to Be Animal: The Case Against Human Exceptionalism ; Animal Minds and the Foible of Human Exceptionalism .

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Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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