All UK establishments licensed to conduct experiments under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 must establish an Ethical Review Process (ERP). The ERP is not required to include lay participation but this is considered to be best practice. This thesis investigates how ERPs, particularly through the inclusion of lay participants, contribute to the regulation of animal experimentation. It is based on semi-structured interviews with 20 ERP members and observations of ERP committee meetings over one year. The study describes the social practices and experience of lay members, how 'layness' is defined, and how <doing ethics' is accomplished within regulatory constraints. The findings document the practical meaning of terms such as 'lay' and 'ethics' in the process of ethical review and their relationship to the regulators' asswnptions. The project contributes to Science and Technology Studies through its discussions of boundary work and expertise, regulatory capture and empirical bioethics. The ERP is a context for examining the interaction between ethics, science and law, simultaneously constructing and contesting what it means to be 'lay' and to be 'ethical'. 'Layness' is found to be an inherently ambiguous and fluid concept, according to the role lay members are expected to play. Lay members' contributions to their ERP reflect local resolutions of this ambiguity rather than centralised rules. Each ERP is a unique entity, reflecting its particular mix of expertise. Scientific work that passes through the ERP is considered to be ethical simply by this passage rather than by conforming to some wider notion of ethical science. The ERPs' flexibility should be further studied as the regulatory system evolves in relation to social and economic pressures. However, the possible implications of policy changes in pursuit of greater efficiency may limit the role of the ERP itself and weaken the contribution of lay members.

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Despite much research into vegetarianism, the psychological relationship between eating meat and evaluating animals remains relatively neglected. Through focus groups, questionnaires and experiments, this study investigated whether people experienced psychological inconsistency in this relationship and, if so, how they handled that inconsistency. Unlike vegetarians' attitudes, the content of meat-eaters' attitudes towards eating meat rarely included animals. Meat-eaters' positive attitudes towards eating meat were consistent with their eating behaviour; however, their attitudes towards farm animals were more positive than their attitudes towards eating meat. It therefore depends upon which attitudes are salient at any given time to determine whether psychological consistency is maximised overall. By focusing on the relationship between their own genuinely-held attitudes towards farm animals, animals' slaughter, and eating meat, meat-eaters' cognitive dissonance increased. Their attitudes towards eating meat were expected to become more positive in order to restore consonance between their attitudes and eating behaviour. However, meat-eaters' attitudes towards eating meat became less positive and their attitudes towards animals' slaughter became more negative. In contrast, their attitudes towards farm animals resisted change. Therefore meat-eaters' attitudes towards farm animals became relatively even more positive than their attitudes towards eating meat and animals' slaughter. Hence, the attitudes stimulated by this research, in an environment which prevented psychological denial strategies, caused (a) meat eaters' attitudes to become more inconsistent with their behaviour and (b) the consequent lack of consonance restoration. This study both helps to understand the empirical relationship between eating meat and evaluating animals and extends cognitive dissonance theory's explanatory power to real-world complex phenomena.

The aim of this thesis was to create a new questionnaire measuring aspects of animal welfare that would address limitations in the literature and that could be used in the UK and Cyprus. Chapter 2 indicated that 57 items measuring aspects of animals abuse and attitudes towards animals, reduced to 13 items measuring negative and positive attitudes. This new scale was renamed the “Zalaf Animal Welfare Scale” and was used in all subsequent studies. Chapter 3 sought to include individual differences in the examination of the ZAWS with sensational interests. Main findings indicated the ZAWS was predicted by high Agreeableness (A) and high Conscientiousness (C), being residents of Cyprus, being younger in age and being non-hunters. Chapter 4 extended the findings by including measures of delinquency and morality in the analysis. Here, the ZAWS was predicted by low delinquency, high A, high C, and being residents of Cyprus, supporting past findings and those found in Chapter 3. The following chapter aimed to extend the previous findings to a sample of children around the Leicestershire area. The ZAWS was examined alongside knowledge of animals, treatment towards animals and personality. Knowledge of animals was a significant predictor of the ZAWS, and knowledge of animals was predicted by high scores on the ZAWS, being in Year 6, being female and being students of School 3. Treatment of animals and individual differences were not implicated in any of the analyses. The final chapter of this thesis employed an applied framework, utilising the ZAWS, knowledge of animals and treatment towards animals variables in the investigation of a humane education programme. This programme was successful in producing positive changes in the knowledge and attitudes of animals. The research studies in this thesis have extended past research as outlined in chapter 1 by investigating animal welfare in a general population sample as opposed to an offender sample, which has been the preferred sample of previous studies of this kind. Furthermore, the simultaneous studies in the UK and Cyprus are the first of their kind to provide information regarding animal welfare in Cyprus while also providing comparison data for the UK. Finally, and most significantly the humane education programme is the first to be carried out and assessed in the UK and has important implications for future education strategies in the UK school system. Findings indicated routes for future studies to take in expanding these results. Limitations and discussions of the findings are expressed throughout the chapters and in Chapter 7.

The mechanisms responsible for cue competition were investigated. In Chapter 1, an overview of the literature that led to and originated from the discovery of cue competition effects (Kamin, 1969 Wagner, Logan, Haberlandt &amp; Price, 1968) attested the diversity of theoretical accounts available to explain these phenomena. The subsequent empirical chapters focused on the predictions made by two rather distinct classes of theory: the Comparator Hypothesis (Miller &amp; Matzel, 1988 Denniston, Savastano &amp; Miller, 2001) and the attentional theory of Mackintosh (1975). Throughout the thesis, their predictions were contrasted to those derived from Standard Associative Theory e.g. Rescorla- Wagner(1972) model . The experiments contained in Chapters 2 and 3 used a Pavlovian appetitive procedure with rats to examine a number of predictions made by the Comparator Hypothesis. In Chapter 2, Experiment 1 tested the prediction that a conditioned inhibitor should have no influence on the excitatory status of the CS in which presence it is trained. Experiment 2 examined whether single-phase blocking disappears with asymptotic training. Further analysis of the Comparator Hypothesis was provided in the two experiments contained in Chapter 3. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed the prediction that adding a stimulus to a continuously trained CS should deteriorate conditioned responding to the latter. The experiments in Chapters 4 and 5, which used an autoshaping procedure in pigeons, were concerned with the attentional theory of Mackintosh (1975). In Chapter 4, Experiments 5 and 6 tested a novel behavioural technique intended to measure associability changes. Evidence of associability changes was found when visual patterns, but not colours, were compared. Experiment 7 explored the locus central or peripheral of the mechanism responsible for these changes. Drawing from the results in Chapter 4, Experiment 8 (Chapter 5) examined whether associability changes can provide a complete account of the relative validity effect in pigeons. Overall, the results challenge the accounts of cue competition advanced by both the Comparator Hypothesis (Miller &amp; Matzel, 1988, Denniston et al., 2001) and the attentional theory of Mackintosh (1975). Without necessarily validating it, the results are mostly compatible with the analysis provided by the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model.

The main concern of environmental philosophy has been to find value for nature. The thesis is an attempt to link a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value, which Andrew Brennan stipulated for a viable environmental philosophy. The problem is set forward in Part I where a definition of nature is explored. The complexity of the task leads to a brief history of the concept of nature (after a criticism of other historical accounts by three environmental philosophers) whereby two opposing explanations of nature and human nature are revealed: teleological and non-teleological. Part II traces the decline of teleological explanation in favour of non-teleological explanations and the development of two main explanations of human nature in relation to nature that are prevalent today: Ultra-Darwinism (a reductionist explanation of human nature) and postmodernism. An analysis of these two positions shows that neither have an adequate metaphysics for finding value for nature, and this is revealed by an examination of two different types of environmental philosophy influenced respectively by the two opposing views. In Part III the problem of values is discussed with particular emphasis on moral values. An argument for objective values based on objective knowledge is put forward as well as a theory of human nature which leads to the conclusion that teleological explanations link a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value more satisfactorily than the non-teleological explanations of Ultra-Darwinism and postmodernism. The relevance of this conclusion to the problems of the environment is shown.

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Modern zoos house millions of wild animals but also aim to conduct animal research, educate visitors about the natural world and support conservation programmes via funding and encouraging wildlife-friendly actions by the public. However, the benefit to conservation efforts and species living in the wild, through fundraising and increasing public awareness, may come at the cost of the animals living within zoos. In this thesis I focussed on the welfare of zoo-housed chimpanzees due to their endangered status and public popularity. I investigated potential social, dietary and visitor related triggers for anxiety-related behaviours (yawning and scratching) and regurgitation and reingestion (R/R). Despite interesting trends, no immediate triggers for these behaviours were found. However, long-term data showed the frequency with which individuals engage in R/R reduced over time when part of a complex group inhabiting an enclosure encouraging natural behaviours and social dynamics. I also examined if music, frequently broadcast to captive chimpanzees, provides any enriching effect on their welfare. Both observational and experimental research suggested that whilst music does not appear to have any obvious positive welfare effects it is equally not detrimental. The final study explored whether public education, one of assumed benefits associated with having animals in zoos, is achieved via ‘Keeper Talks’. They were effective at demonstrating to adult visitors that touchscreens are an effective form of enrichment for chimpanzees but the talks had no significant effect on their knowledge of other issues covered, or any area of knowledge in young people. Further investigation showed that zoo professionals have inaccurate estimates of visitor knowledge and that assessment methods do not always align with educational goals. Overall, the findings in this thesis highlight the importance of research within zoos, which can lead to a better understanding of barriers to good animal welfare, utilisation of only positive welfare interventions and maximisation of educational potential.

This thesis discusses the nature of two interrelated moral phenomena, blame and forgiveness. The two main questions this thesis addresses are: What is it to blame someone? What is involved in forgiveness? I begin by offering an account of blame which fits well with the attitudes of apology and forgiveness, as responses to wrongdoing. I introduce the idea that we blame wrongdoers for the disrespect and lack of consideration expressed in their actions and behaviour. I use the broad Kantian idea that whenever people wrong each other there is a failure of respect involved. Following this idea, I propose to understand wrongdoing as expressing disrespect for the victim and therefore creating a deficit of respect. I argue that there is something corrective about the expression of blame. Wrongdoers create a deficit of respect when they wrong us and blame expressively makes good that disrespect. I then develop an account of earned forgiveness through apology. I argue that apologies have reason-giving powers: they make forgiveness rational. Apologies work in relation to forgiveness because in apologizing the wrongdoer recognizes that how she treated the victim was wrong and that the victim deserves to be treated better. Apology restores at an expressive level the moral balance of respect between the victim and the wrongdoer, so that forgiveness can be forthcoming. In cases of elective forgiveness, where there is no apology, I argue that forgiveness is justified by non-desert type reasons such as generosity and strong community support. These reasons both enable and justify the victim to forgive. I further ask the question of what sort of a thing forgiveness is emotionally. I argue that forgiveness involves the overcoming of retributive emotions towards the wrongdoer, as a result of deciding to trust the wrongdoer.

Western societies today are marked by a broad liberal consensus in favour of toleration. Yet, some philosophers have charged that toleration as a liberal ideal is incoherent. Some have argued that toleration is incompatible with liberal political orders. Others have suggested that in a truly liberal society it is practically redundant. These charges are based on two interrelated claims: 1) Toleration involves, semantically and historically, power asymmetries and hierarchical positioning; hence toleration is an inegalitarian practice in nature, and therefore unjust (inegalitarian charge). 2) In a constitutional liberal order, the state’s justice-based duty of non-interference is a morally more appropriate response to diversity than is toleration; hence toleration is a redundant practice (redundancy charge) In order to reconcile toleration with liberal political practice, in this thesis, I investigate the validity of these claims. My contention is that toleration can resist the inegalitarian charge. This is the aim that I pursue in the first two chapters. I argue firstly that the supposition of a right to interference as a necessary component of the concept of toleration address the inegalitarian charge. I then articulate a two-level model of tolerant deliberation that does a better job than existing theories explaining the relation between reasons in favour and against interference with the disapproved-of. I will finally argue that political toleration completes, rather than replicates, justice-based non-interferences. A defence of this “complementarity thesis,” requires two moves. First, I construct a formal theory of political toleration that goes beyond the state’s justice-based duty of non-interference. Second, I demonstrate how and under what conditions political toleration, as a distinct form of the state’s non-interference, can be enacted. Inspired by the revival of interest in political realism in recent years, I argue that the emergence of the “extraordinary politics” permits the state to exclude/suspend its justice-based interference. The latter is tantamount to what I refer to as acts of political toleration.