Toward a Pragmatist Environmental Ethics : A Re-reading of J. M. Coetzee's The Lives of Animals

Focusing on the matter of carnivorism, J. M. Coetzee provides a set of epistemologically dynamic debates in The Lives of Animals(1999). The reader is not allowed to identify the writer's position toward the controversial issue, however, because Coetzee, as usual, disperses his own voice among (de)claims and (counter-)arguments of the characters and reflectors. Deputizing for the writer, John, Mrs. Costello's son, seems to represent a straddled figure entrapped between his practical wife, Norma who never minds animal-eating and Mrs. Costello, a vegetarian fundamentalist. The writer's standpoint furthers its complexity as the reader is given the claims and arguments of the debaters who participate in Costello's two lectures, aside from professional responses presented in the additional section, 「Reflections」. The writer's ambiguous attitude does not promote any conspicuous environmental ethics for itself. But the reader deserves to be ethically oriented after reading the book. The reader's ‘social intelligence,' not a priori reasoning, makes it possible to generate her own environmental ethics that would be hopefully well-articulated with scientific knowledge which could be missing in the novel. Especially, the knowledge of ecology and medicine could indicate a clear direction in terms of environmental ethics. And the projection of meaning on the reader's side possibly offers a solid base on which a collective ethics concerning animal rights is brought about within a particular community.