Overcoming the Fantasy of Human Supremacy: Toward a Murdochian Theory of Change in Nonideal Animal Ethics

How may we change ourselves and our society so that animals are treated more justly? To answer this question, I turn to the account of moral change developed by the philosopher Iris Murdoch. The chief obstacle to becoming better, she believed, is an attachment to fantasy, from which we are liberated only through a loving attention directed at the reality of other beings. Building on this account, I argue that human supremacy is one such fantasy—that it acts as an impediment to interspecies justice. I end with a meditation on love as liberatory practice.