Philosophy – Rainer Ebert

Are you interested in taking a free Introduction to Ethics course, just for the sake of learning?

For the past few years, I’ve been teaching Introduction to Ethics at community colleges in Texas. Every now and then, I hear from people outside Texas who would like to take the course, not for college credit, but simply because they’re interested in learning about ethics.

Unfortunately, college bureaucracy makes it difficult to accommodate students who aren’t officially enrolled. So, if there’s enough interest, I’d like to try offering the course independently to a small group of students, if there’s an interest.

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Bangladesh, Philosophy

Remembering Pradip Kumar Roy: A philosopher who opened minds

I have only just learned that Pradip Kumar Roy, a former professor and Chairman in the Department of Philosophy at Dhaka University, passed away in April. I have known him for many years and thought very highly of him. Not only was he a distinguished scholar with a list of accomplishments too long to mention, but he was also a very kind and generous man. I remember many pleasant conversations in person and via email, and it pains me that I will not get a chance to talk to him again.

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Bangladesh, Philosophy

Shamima Parvin Lasker (1965-2026): Pioneer of bioethics in Bangladesh, mentor to the world

Shamima Parvin Lasker, an anatomy professor and a pioneer of bioethics in Bangladesh, died on July 9, 2026. This is a profound loss for all who knew her, and for the medical and bioethics communities she served so passionately.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

The ethics of animal-derived ingredients in medications

I’m excited to share that my latest paper has just been published in Asian Bioethics Review!

The paper tackles an underappreciated issue in healthcare, which arises from the fact that many common medications contain animal-derived ingredients, such as gelatin, lactose, or magnesium stearate. For most people, this fact doesn’t raise any concerns. But for ethical vegans, whose numbers are steadily increasing globally, it can create a real moral conflict.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Why making people allergic to meat isn’t the solution

What if we could reduce meat consumption, and thereby the suffering of farmed animals, by making people allergic to red meat?

That’s the proposal made in a recent Bioethics article by Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth (both at Western Michigan University). They suggest we deliberately promote alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a condition transmitted by tick bites that can trigger severe allergic reactions to mammalian meat. The idea is simple: if people can’t eat red meat, they won’t, and animals will suffer less.

In a new paper just published in the same journal, my co-author Christian Koeder and I argue that this approach is not only misguided, but morally problematic.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy, Tanzania

Sio Kitu: Kuanzisha mazungumzo ya falsafa ya haki za wanyama kwa Kiswahili

Namna tunavyowatendea wanyama inaonyesha kwa kiasi kikubwa utu wetu. Wanyama hawawezi kuzungumza lugha zetu, lakini wana uwezo wa kuhisi. Wanahisi maumivu, hofu, furaha na faraja—kama sisi. Wanathamini maisha yao, kama sisi tunavyothamini yetu.

Hata hivyo, kila siku wanyama wengi wanateseka. Katika mashamba, maabara, na shughuli za burudani mbalimbali, mara nyingi wanachukuliwa kama vitu tu—vitu vya kutumiwa, kudhibitiwa au kutupwa.

Ni kwa sababu hii kwamba tumeanzisha Sio Kitu.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy, Tanzania

Falsafa ya Haki za Wanyama

Msimamo wa Haki za Wanyama

Wanyama wengine ambao binadamu huwatumia kwa chakula, katika sayansi, huwawinda, huwakamata, na kuwanyanyasa kwa namna mbalimbali, wana maisha yao binafsi ambayo yana thamani kwao wenyewe na sio tu kwa sababu ya matumizi yao kwetu. Sio tu kwamba wapowapo duniani, bali wanaufahamu. Wanachokipitia kina maana kwao. Kila mnyama ana maisha ambayo yanaweza kuwa mazuri au mabaya kulingana na namna anavyotendewa.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Neues Buch: Die Philosophie der Tierrechte

ISBN: 979-8279348039

Tom Regan war einer der Begründer der Philosophie der Tierrechte. In seinem Text The Philosophy of Animal Rights, den ich hier neu ins Deutsche übersetzt habe, bietet er eine kompakte Zusammenfassung dieser Philosophie. Ausgangspunkt für Regans Argument ist die Tatsache, dass viele nichtmenschliche Tiere – ebenso wie Menschen – ein Leben haben, das für sie selbst von Bedeutung ist. Sie besitzen ein geistiges Innenleben, können Freude und Leid erfahren und haben daher einen Eigenwert, der unabhängig von ihrem Nutzen für den Menschen besteht.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Tom Regan: Die Philosophie der Tierrechte

Die Tierrechtsposition

Die Tiere, die von Menschen gegessen, in der Wissenschaft verwendet, gejagt, mit Fallen gefangen und auf vielerlei andere Weise ausgebeutet werden, haben ein eigenes Leben, das ihnen wichtig ist, unabhängig von ihrem Nutzen für uns. Sie existieren nicht nur in der Welt, sie sind sich der Welt bewusst. Was mit ihnen geschieht, ist für sie von Bedeutung. Jedes Tier hat ein Leben, das für das Tier selbst besser oder schlechter verlaufen kann.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

The Philosophy of Animal Rights, by Dr. Tom Regan

The Animal Rights Position

The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it. What happens to them matters to them. Each has a life that fares better or worse for the one whose life it is.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Society

Conference proceedings published: Humans and Other Animals

In December 2024, Motlatsi Khosi, Kala Bopape, and I organized an international animal ethics conference, Humans and Other Animals: Rattling the Paradigm, with the aim of creating a space where students and early career practitioners, particularly from the Global South, could meet and explore the complex relationship between humans and other animals.

After the conclusion of the conference, the presenters were invited to work their presentations into publishable papers. The result is a special issue of the Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, which has just been published and is available here. It contains the following articles, all of which are open access:

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

ড. টম রেগান: প্রাণী-অধিকার দর্শন

অন্য যেসব প্রাণীকে মানুষ খায়, বিজ্ঞানে ব্যবহার করে, শিকার করে, ফাঁদ পেতে ধরে এবং বিচিত্র উপায়ে শোষণ করে, আমাদের কাছে তাদের উপযোগিতা ছাড়াও তাদের একটি স্বকীয় জীবন রয়েছে যা তাদের কাছে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। তারা যে শুধু পৃথিবীর মাঝে অস্তিত্বশীল তা-ই নয়, তারা এ ব্যাপারে অবগতও বটে। তাদের জীবনে যা ঘটে তা তাদের কাছে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। প্রত্যেকের একটি জীবন আছে যা জীবনধারীর কাছে উৎকৃষ্টতর বা নিকৃষ্টতররূপে প্রতিভাত হতে পারে।

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Humans and Other Animals: Rattling the Paradigm

Two colleagues at the University of South Africa – Motlatsi Khosi and Kala Bopape – and I are organizing an international animal ethics conference for students and early career practitioners, which will be held online on December 17, 18, and 19, 2024.

The conference is organized around three themes:

Philosophy and Ethical Theory
Activism and Community-centered Approaches
Cultural Production, Art, and Performance

78 abstracts from numerous countries were submitted in response to our call for abstracts, out of which nine were selected for presentation. On each conference day, there will be three sessions of 45 minutes.

The conference language is English. Attendance is free, and anybody anywhere is welcome to join! If you would like to attend, please register using this form no later than Friday, December 13, 2024.

You can find the complete program on our conference website. For a PDF copy, please click here. A poster is available here.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy, Society

A personal choice?

When people are treated monstrously, we say they are “treated like animals.” This is because we treat animals monstrously. We mistreat and abuse them on farms, transport them in cramped and stressful conditions, torture them in laboratories, hunt them for sport, and use them for our entertainment in circuses and zoos. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. And yet, the horror continues, and it continues on a scale that is truly mind-boggling.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

In memory of Carl Cohen

I only now learned that American philosopher Carl Cohen passed away earlier this year, at the age of 92. He was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Carl speaking at the University of Heidelberg on July 26, 2006

Carl speaking at the University of Heidelberg on July 26, 2006

I first met Carl in July 2006, when he spoke at a conference about the moral status of animals at the University of Heidelberg. Even though I thought he was dead wrong about animals, his passion for philosophical debate and his genuine appreciation of reasoned disagreement made a lasting impression on me, and shaped how I think about the nature and role of philosophy. He was a true champion of diversity of opinion and did not shy away from opinions that are unpopular. If that is where he thought the best arguments lead, that is where he went. He publicly and forcefully argued against affirmative action in college admissions, and for the right of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, a Chicago suburb where a significant number of Holocaust survivors lived. Like Socrates and any philosopher worth their salt, he was a troublemaker.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy, Tanzania

Ukombozi wa Wanyama

Animal Liberation, a 1975 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, is widely considered one of the founding texts of the modern animal liberation movement. It develops a new ethics for our treatment of nonhuman animals, according to which their interests should be given the same consideration as the like interests of humans, and calls for an end to practices such as factory farming and animal testing. The book has had a lasting impact on generations of scholars and students and has influenced countless people in all corners of the world to adopt a vegan diet.

Almost half a century after its first publication, Animal Liberation is now finally available in Swahili! The book was translated by Deogratius Simba and published by Dar es Salaam-based publisher Mkuki na Nyota. It is available for purchase at the TPH Bookshop at 24 Samora Avenue in Dar es Salaam, and everywhere else where Mkuki na Nyota’s books are sold. The retail price is 30,000 TSh. If you are a student at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), you can find a copy of the book at the library of UDSM’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Irresponsible scholarship

If the ultimate test of our humanity is how we treat nonhuman animals, then we are failing spectacularly. Earth is home to vastly more farm animals than wild mammals and birds, and almost all of them live in factory farms – where conditions vary from horrible to horrific – and die violently. The sheer numbers make our treatment of animals one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. You do not need to be an animal rights advocate to recognize this truth. If you believe that animals have any moral standing at all, that unlike stones they matter, at least a little bit, then the monstrous amount of gratuitous suffering we routinely inflict on animals should offend your moral sense. A Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans in fact are either somewhat or very concerned about the way in which the animals we raise for food are treated, and extend that concern to the animals used in entertainment and research as well.

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Animal Ethics, Philosophy

Montreal Declaration on Animal Exploitation

The Montreal Declaration on Animal Exploitation is a public condemnation of animal exploitation. As of now, more than 500 researchers in moral and political philosophy from across the globe and various philosophical traditions have signed the Declaration. I am one of them. In philosophy, such agreement is rare. Its part of a growing consensus that common human practices that involve treating non-human animals as mere commodities are fundamentally unjust and morally indefensible.

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Animal Ethics, Human Rights, Philosophy

New article, defending a novel account of full and equal moral status

My new article in the Zeitschrift für Ethik und Moralphilosophie (Journal for Ethics and Moral Philosophy) is perhaps the most important article I have written to date. It builds on arguments I made in previous publications – including in this article and this article – and presents a novel account of full and equal moral status, according to which it is no less seriously wrong to kill a non-human conscious animal than it is to kill you or me.

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Animal Ethics, Bangladesh, Philosophy, Society

প্রাণিমুক্তি: প্রাণিমুক্তি আন্দোলনের বিজ্ঞানসম্মত প্রামাণিক ধ্রুপদী গ্রন্থ

Peter Singer‘s Animal Liberation, a modern classic in the field of ethics, is now available in Bangla! It is one of the most important books that you will ever read. It might change your life. It did change mine. You can order your copy here.

প্রাণিমুক্তি

প্রাণিমুক্তি আন্দোলনের বিজ্ঞানসম্মত প্রামাণিক ধ্রুপদী গ্রন্থ

Pranimukti

Pranimukti Andoloner Bijjansammta Dhrupadi Grantha

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