Creature Consciousness.

The article discusses animal studies, an effort in university ethics departments to explore the relationship of humans to animals. It notes that humans are animals and are shaped by evolution, and the reasoning that separates humans from other animals needs to be explored. The field is seen as begin formed at an intersection of the environmental and social justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s. It notes different approaches according to discipline. Historians, for example, might study the historical roles of animals in different societies and dogfighting today as a forced labor issue. Literary scholars might look at anthropomorphic language usage. It notes that one thing that binds different disciplines engaging in animal studies is examining old ways of thinking about animals.