'Ihre defension zu führen': The rights of animals in early eighteenth-century Germany and Sweden

Andreas Hellerstedt

doi:10.7557/4.6545

Authors

Andreas Hellerstedt Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/4.6545

Keywords:

natural law, animal rights, Johan Upmarck (Rosenadler), Immanuel Proeleus, eighteenth-century philosophy

Abstract

This article discusses two lesser known proponents of animal rights in early eighteenth-century Northern Europe. In Sweden, Johan Upmarck argued for an “analogy” of rights of animals in 1714. German scholar Immanuel Proeleus proposed a set of animal rights and human duties towards animals in 1709.

Both authors place restrictions on these rights. In the case of Upmarck, the rights are described through the notion of an “analogy”. The rights of animals are only rights in an improper sense, and not comparable to the rights humans have. In the case of Proeleus, animal rights are placed on a foundational level, as a category of rights that are common to both men and other animals. This gives them a stronger position than is the case in Upmarck’s argument, but animal rights are in the final analysis nonetheless relegated to a subordinate status. However, Proeleus goes much further in detailing the exact nature of the rights of animals and the duties of humans to care for and protect them, although Upmarck also delineates what constitutes “illicit cruelty” towards animals and discusses their experience of suffering.

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