Book Recommendations, Reviews and Author Interviews from All-Creatures.org
The Moral Circle By Jeff Sebo
PUBLISHER: W. W. Norton & Company
Interviewed by SARX
The Moral Circle
Available at
Norton
ISBN : 978-1-324-06480-0
ISBN-10 : 1324064803
ISBN-13 : 978-1324064800
INTERVIEW
Tell us about your background and how you became interested in
animal issues.
I became interested in animal ethics and advocacy when I was in college. I
went to college at Texas Christian University, where I majored in philosophy
and sociology. I took classes that examined our interactions with animals in
both majors, and it became clear to me that our current domination,
exploitation, and extermination of animals is clearly morally problematic
despite being widely accepted in society. I went vegetarian about a year
later and went vegan about a year after that, and I also started two student
groups — one that engaged in animal advocacy and another that supported our
local feral cat population. I then pursued a philosophy PhD at New York
University, and in my final year there, I was lucky to be hired as the first
postdoctoral researcher at the brand new NYU Animal Studies Initiative (now
NYU Animal Studies). That allowed me to spend the first three years of my
career doing research, teaching, and service related to animal minds, animal
ethics, animal advocacy, and animal policy; and by the time that this
position ended, I had enough momentum to keep working on those topics.
What was the motivation behind your latest book The Moral Circle?
The Moral Circle is about which beings belong in our moral community — in
other words, which beings deserve to be treated with respect, compassion,
and other kinds of consideration. We now accept that all humans are full and
equal members of our moral community. But what about different kinds of
nonhumans? For example, what about vertebrates like cows and pigs? What
about invertebrates like ants and worms? What about plants and fungi? What
about robots and chatbots? And if some (or many or all) of these beings do
belong in our moral community, what follows for how we should treat them?
There are quintillions of nonhumans in the world, and human activity is
increasingly impacting them. As the dominant species, we have a
responsibility to ask which nonhumans matter, how much they matter, and what
we owe them, so that we can exercise our power and influence responsibly. In
that spirit, I argue in this book that humanity should extend moral
consideration to a vast number and wide range of nonhumans, and I discuss
how we can build a better future for humans and nonhumans alike.
How do you define “human exceptionalism” and can it lead to harmful
consequences?
Human exceptionalism is the view that humans always take priority over
nonhumans. This perspective makes sense to an extent; in the same kind of
way that I should generally prioritize members of my family, perhaps I
should also generally prioritize members of my species. But there should be
limits. Yes, I can feed my family before I feed other families. But does
that mean that I can kill other families unnecessarily? Does it mean that I
can neglect other families even when I have the capacity to help them? And
does it mean that I can prioritize even trivial concerns that my family
members might have over vital concerns that members of other families may
have? Of course not. These limits apply at the species level too. Even if we
can generally prioritize humans, that does not mean that we can harm or
neglect nonhumans for no good reason, or that we can prioritize trivial
human interests over vital nonhuman interests. And once we recognize that,
it becomes clear that we have a responsibility to prioritize humans much
less and nonhumans much more than we currently do.
What needs to change if we are to tackle the challenges we currently
face?
Improving conditions for nonhumans requires three general kinds of change:
knowledge, capacity, and political will. At present we have bottlenecks in
all three respects. We know very little about what nonhumans are like and
what we owe them. Even when we have this knowledge, we have very little
capacity to act on it – very few resources, very few institutions, and very
little infrastructure. And even when we have this knowledge and capacity, we
have very little motivation to make use of it – very little interest in
considering nonhumans as we update our social, legal, political, and
economic systems. In my view, creating a better world for humans and
nonhumans alike requires addressing all three of these issues at once. If we
work to build the relevant knowledge, capacity, and political will at the
same time, then these changes will all be mutually reinforcing; for example,
our research will make our advocacy better informed, and our advocacy will
make our research better motivated. It will still take decades to make real
progress, but at least we can be heading in the right direction.
What future ethical quandaries might we face regarding animals? How
can we best meet these challenges?
Right now, animal advocates focus mostly on improving conditions for captive
terrestrial vertebrates. That includes farmed animals like cows and pigs,
lab animals like mice and fishes, and companion animals like cats and dogs.
In the future, animal advocates will need to expand focus by considering
free-living animals, aquatic animals, and invertebrates as well. Yes, humans
might not interact with these populations directly as much as we do with
captive terrestrial vertebrates, but we still interact with them at vast
scales. For example, human-caused climate change will affect animals all
over the world by determining whether they can live at all and what kinds of
lives they can have if they do, and we have a responsibility to improve
conditions for everyone affected by our activity. Yes, our ability to do
that work right now is limited, but this is why our responsibility is not to
solve every problem right now, but rather to help as many animals as
possible right now while building the knowledge, power, and political will
that our successors will need to do more than we can currently do.
How might individuals and faith communities begin to practically
expand their moral circle?
As a general principle, I think that we should avoid harming animals
unnecessarily, and that when we do harm animals unnecessarily, we should
help them to recover where possible. In our individual lives, that means
that we should harm animals only when doing so is necessary for a vital
purpose, like defending ourselves or others from imminent harm. It also
means that we should help animals to survive in human-altered environments
where possible, for instance by helping animals who are trapped in a fence,
in a building, or on a highway. More broadly, it means participating in
updating our shared systems to treat animals as subjects rather than
objects. For example, how can faith communities update practices and
traditions that depend on violence towards animals, like the consumption of
meat? And how can governments update legal and political systems that treat
animals like property and commodities, like federal and state “animal
welfare” laws that give no weight at all to the welfare of the vast majority
of animals? We all have a role to play in these processes, and we should all
do what we can.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Jeff Sebo is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at
New York University, where he also serves as Affiliated Professor of
Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law. He directs both the Animal
Studies M.A. Program and the Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program, co-directs
the Wild Animal Welfare Program, and is the Deputy Director of the Center
for Environmental and Animal Protection.
Professor Sebo’s research spans moral philosophy, legal philosophy,
philosophy of mind, animal and AI ethics and policy, global health, and
climate ethics. His forthcoming book, The Moral Circle, will be published in
January 2025, adding to his existing works, including Saving Animals, Saving
Ourselves, Chimpanzee Rights, and Food, Animals, and the Environment.
Professor Sebo’s research spans moral philosophy, legal philosophy,
philosophy of mind, animal and AI ethics and policy, global health, and
climate ethics. His forthcoming book, The Moral Circle, will be
published in January 2025, adding to his existing works, including
Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves, Chimpanzee Rights, and Food,
Animals, and the Environment.
Return to Book Recommendations
Read more at Book Directory