'His Heart Exposed to Prying Eyes, To Pity Has No Claim': Reflections on Hogarth and the Nature of Cruelty

In his famous discussion of the source of our duties concerning anirrals, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant approvingly mentions a series of engravings ( "The Four Stages of Cruelty") by the English artist William Hogarth as exemplifying one of his central contentions. [2] The approach to our duties regarding anirrals advocated by Kant holds that avoiding cruelty is the most fUndamental duty we can have to nonhuman animals. For convenience, I shall refer to this view as the "No-Cruelty" j:X)sition. It is not surprising that Kant cites Hogarth while explaining his own views; Hogarth's engravings provide a rich visual statement about the nature of cruelty and the moral status of its victims.