Richard Dean (1727 – 8 February 1778) was an English

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

minister and early

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

writer. Dean was born in

Kirkby Malham Kirkby Malham is a small village and civil parish in the Craven District, Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Situated in the Yorkshire Dales it lies east of Settle, North Yorkshire, Settle. The population of the civil parish as taken ...

, Yorkshire.Grayling; A. C, Pyle, Andrew; Goulder, Naomi; Brown, Stuart C. (2007). ''The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy''. Thoemmes Continuum. p. 802 In addition to being an Anglican minister, Dean was schoolmaster of Middleton grammar school.Sutton, Charles William. (1888)
''Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900''
Volume 14.

Smith, Elder & Co Smith, Elder & Co. or Smith, Elder, and Co. or Smith, Elder and Co. was a British publishing company which was most noted for the works it published in the 19th century. It was purchased by John Murray in the early 1900s, its archive now kept a ...

. p. 250 He was first

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

of Royton Chapel and curate of Middleton. He is best known for his two volume book, ''An Essay on the Future Life of Brutes'', which argued for animal rights and a future existence (

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

) for animals from the Bible. Dean argued that animal immortality followed logically and morally from animal sentience. He believed that animals had a sentient principle or

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

and that and a loving God would not have created animals subject to pain if he had not intended to compensate their suffering with a future existence.Richardson, Angelique. (2013). ''After Darwin: Animals, Emotions, and the Mind''. Rodopi. pp. 38-40. Dean argued against the

Cartesian Cartesian means of or relating to the French philosopher René Descartes—from his Latinized name ''Cartesius''. It may refer to: Mathematics *Cartesian closed category, a closed category in category theory *Cartesian coordinate system, modern ...

view that animals were mere machines. He argued for

animal intelligence Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influenc ...

and asserted that animals live and suffer as humans do. He believed that this implied that man has a moral responsibility to animals. During his time not many writers held this view; however, Dean did acknowledge the work of John Hildrop. He died in Middleton on 8 February 1778.

Selected publications

''An Essay on the Future Life of Brutes''
(two volumes, 1768)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, Richard 1727 births 1778 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests English animal rights scholars