In this book, Keekok Lee asks the question, 'what is an animal, and how does our treatment of it within captivity affect its status as a being ?' This ontological treatment marks the first such approach in looking at animals in captivity. Engaging with the moral questions of zoo-keeping (is it morally justified to keep a wild animal in captivity?) as well as the ontological (what is it that we conserve in zoos after all? A wild animal or its shadow?), Lee develops her own original hypothesis, centred around the concept of 'immuration' - defining this in contrast to domestication - and thereby provides a unique addition to the growing body of work on animal ethics.
K. Lee
animals ethics evolution lifestyle philosophy
'The book is timely addition to growing body of philosophical literature on
animals and moral dimensions of conservation.' - Markku Oksanen, Department of Philosophy, University of Kuopio, Finland