This is a resource book for teaching about animals in comparison to human beings. It is recommended for Classes 4 and 5 (age 9 to 11) in the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum. Charles Kovacs taught in Edinburgh so there is a Scottish flavour to the animals discussed in the first half of the book, including seals, red deer and eagles. In the later chapters, he covers elephants, horses and bears.

The Human Being and the Animal World is a resource book for teaching about animals in relation to human beings. It is recommended for Waldorf school classes four and five (ages 9 to 11).

Human beings share the earth with many other living creatures and have dealt with them in many different ways. Animals have furnished humans with food, done their work, aroused their curiosity, provided them with "sport," stimulated their sense of beauty, and provoked their wonder. They have also shared affection, when both the human and animal have decided to give it. No less varied or avoidable are the attitudes humans have developed toward these creatures. This collection of writings selected from a vast literature about animals is also about the people who have been inspired to write on that subject. Sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously the writer implies an answer to one or more of the questions that any concern with an animal must raise, such as: What is an animal's place in nature? Are they here primarily to serve as a food source? Do they possess inherent rights and privileges? How are they alike or different from humans? The answers to these questions are as varied as the authors. Each narrative description, or exposition contributes something to an over-all picture of human beings' relations with and attitudes toward the animal kingdom. It is a remarkable conclusion, illustrated by Krutch's chronological arrangement within categories, that almost every major attitude and activity that has ever existed concerning animals still exists today even though there has been a drift in certain directions. Although the editor fairly represents the opposing view, his sympathies lie with those for whom the animal world embodies something to be loved and learned from rather than merely to be studied or exploited.

This book addresses a current, frontline issue in the perennial exchange between science and religion. Jersild surveys the contemporary scene in genetic research and the visionary goals of a number of scientists concerning the human future. He focuses on human identity - "Who Are We?" - as the critical question, first addressing our biological origins in light of evolution and presenting a holistic understanding of human nature. He then turns to the world of biotechnology and the tension between human limitations and human potential in light of prospective genetic enhancements. The implications of genetic engineering, the impact of pharmacology, and the human desire for perfection and immortality all enter into a volatile mix of ideas and aspirations concerning the human future. Jersild brings a Christian perspective to these developments in spelling out a responsible stance.

Our views on human nature are fundamental to the whole development, indeed the whole future, of human society. Originally published in 1974, Professor Thorpe believed that this was one of the most important and significant topics to which a biologist can address himself, and in this book he attempts a synthetic view of the nature of man and animal based on the five disciplines of physiology, ethology, genetics, psychology and philosophy. In a masterly survey of the natural order he shows the animal world as part of, yet distinct from, the inanimate world. He then treats aspects of the animal world which approach the human world in behaviour and capabilities, examining simple organisms, communications in vertebrates and invertebrates, innate behaviour versus acquired behaviour, and animal perception. In the second part of the book he deals with those aspects of human nature for which there is no analogy and which constitute man’s uniqueness – his consciousness of his past, his awareness of his future and his desire to understand the meaning of his existence. The primary facts which demonstrate the importance of this book arise from the ever-growing power of man over his environment and his apparent inability to foresee and cope with the dangers of uncontrolled population growth on the one hand and the wildly irrational waste and degradation of the natural resources of the world on the other. Professor Thorpe believes that an immense responsibility lies with literate men of good will, particularly scientists, to convince man that he is the spearhead and custodian of a stupendous evolutionary process. Animal Nature and Human Nature integrates scientific fact with sound theological thought in an attempt to fulfil, in a manner previously impossible Pascal’s injunction that: ‘It is dangerous to show man too clearly how much he resembles the beast without at the same time showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to allow him too clear a vision of his greatness without his baseness. It is even more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. But it is very profitable to show him both.’

To what extent, and in what manner, do storytelling practices accommodate nonhuman subjects and their modalities of experience, and how can contemporary narrative study shed light on interspecies interactions and entanglements? In Narratology beyond the Human, David Herman addresses these questions through a cross-disciplinary approach to post-Darwinian narratives concerned with animals and human-animal relationships. Herman considers the enabling and constraining effects of different narrative media, examining a range of fictional and nonfictional texts disseminated in print, comics and graphic novels, and film. In focusing on techniques such as the use of animal narrators, alternation between human and nonhuman perspectives, the embedding of stories within stories, and others, the book explores how specific strategies for portraying nonhuman agents both emerge from and contribute to broader attitudes toward animal life. Herman argues that existing frameworks for narrative inquiry must be modified to take into account how stories are interwoven with cultural ontologies, or understandings of what sorts of beings populate the world and how they relate to humans. Showing how questions of narrative bear on ideas of species difference and assumptions about animal minds, Narratology beyond the Human underscores our inextricable interconnectedness with other forms of creatural life and suggests that stories can be used to resituate imaginaries of human action in a more-than-human world.

An anthology of 41 articles from classical and contemporary sources, by rabbis, doctors, veterinarians, conservationists, philosophers, historians and activists on vegetarianism, ritual slaughter, animal research and its implications for modern health.

Decker's Patterns of Exposition is a modern classic an accessible collection of quality essays which aptly illustrate the rhetorical modes and reflect the diversity of our culture, and the changes and challenges of our times. Practical, concise writing apparatus includes chapter openers that introduce each rhetorical mode. An emphasis on critical reading and writing is demonstrated through the "Ways of Writing" section and an all new section, "Becoming a Critical Reader." Within chapters, some essays have been grouped into thematic clusters on provocative topics to show how writers use multiple patterns to address the same theme.