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The Fellowship of Life |
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100 Academics Support New Animal Ethics Centre at Oxford More than 100 academics from 10 countries have agreed to become
Advisers to the new Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics to be launched
online on Monday (27 November) at
www.oxfordanimalethics.com
- which aims to put animals on the intellectual agenda. The Centre is the world's first academy dedicated to the enhancement
of the ethical status of animals through academic publication, teaching
and research. Academics world-wide from both the sciences and the
humanities will be eligible to become Fellows of the Centre. It will act
as an international, independent think tank for the advancement of
progressive thought about animals. One of the areas of research will be the relationship between animal
abuse and violence to human beings. One of the world's major writers,
who has explored this link - Nobel Laureate in Literature, Professor J.
M. Coetzee has honoured the Centre by agreeing to become its first
Honorary Fellow. Other projects being pursued include an online course
in animal ethics, a new monograph series, and a new Journal of Animal
Ethics. The Centre's first director, Oxford theologian, the Revd Professor
Andrew Linzey, said today: "The support of such a large number of
internationally recognised academics underlines just how important
animals are as a moral issue". "There is a strong rational case for animals, which has been
recognised over the centuries by academics and philosophers. What is
needed is for this rational case to be much better known and there are
now signs that progressive thinking is becoming mainstream. Importantly,
animals are now recognised as sentient beings in European law; and, in
the UK , the most comprehensive - and long overdue - overhaul of animal
welfare legislation for almost a century is shortly to be enacted into
law." "We must strive to ensure animal issues are highlighted and
rationally discussed throughout society - we cannot change the world for
animals without changing our ideas about them. The Centre will promote
ethical attitudes and contribute to informed public debate." Professor Priscilla Cohn, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Penn
State University, who is the Associate Director of the Centre, added:
"It seems to us that academics should take the lead in helping to foster
a new kind of debate about animals - one that goes beyond slogans and
stereotypes". The Advisers and the first six Fellows are listed on the Centre's
website:
www.oxfordanimalethics.com. The Centre is named after the
distinguished Spanish Philosopher, José Ferrater Mora, who courageously
spoke out against bull-fighting in Spain . For more information, contact Notes to Editors: Professor Priscilla N. Cohn is Emeritus Professor of
Philosophy at Abington College , Penn State University . She has taught
courses on animal ethics for 35 years, and lectured on five continents.
Her books include Contraception in Wildlife, Book 1 (Edwin Mellen
Press, 1996) and Ethics and Wildlife (Edwin Mellen Press, 1999).
The first six Founding Fellows comprise three theologians, two philosophers, and one scientist from the UK, US, Australia, Armenia and Canada: Professor Paul Ara Barsam (theologian at the University of Yerevan, Armenia), Professor Mark Bernstein (philosopher at Purdue University, USA), Dr Scott Cowdell (theologian at Charles Sturt University and Rector, St Paul's Anglican Church, Canberra, Australia), Professor Susan Pigott (Old Testament scholar at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas), Professor Mark Rowlands (philosopher at the University of Hertfordshire), and Professor Martin Willison (biologist and environmentalist at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada). Return to Announcements
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