Welcome to LBAR 181.502: Animal Ethics and Science

For the syllabus, click here.

Thursdays 11:10-12:00 in Heldenfels room 119

Note: You will need an ID and a password to retrieve most of the materials linked below. That's because some of these are copyrighted materials. As a registered student in the class, the fair use doctrine entitles you to download a copy for your own use in the course, but it may be illegal for you to distribute the files or in any other way reproduce them. If you're a student in the class, I will give you an ID and a password to use.

Readings, handouts, and web pages used

1. Thursday, January 19

   1. Overview of course topic.

2. Thursday, January 26

   1. Peter Singer, "All Animals are Equal" from his Animal Liberation, second edition (Avon Books, 1990), pp. 1-23.

   2. Some related stuff:
      1. A reconstruction of Singer's argument for equality of all sentient animals.
      2. The "standard argument by analogy" regarding the scope of pain in the animal kingdom.

3. Thursday, February 2

   1. Lynne Sneddon et al., "Do fishes have nociceptors? Evidence for the evolution of a vertebrate sensory system," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Vol. 270 (2003), pp. 1115-1121.

   
   
   

   ---

   Note: From here on out, we will decide, based on how each week's discussion goes, which specific readings to discuss when. We will definitely need to cover all of the following, however, in order to discuss the full range of philosophical perspectives on animal ethics:

   • Tom Regan, "The Animal Rights Debate," a 1999 presentation at Texas A&M.
   • Bernard Rollin, "The New Social Ethic for Animals" (1995).
   • Carl Cohen, "The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research" (1986).
   • Peter Carruthers, "Brute Experience" (1989).

   ---

   
   
   

4. Thursday, February 9

5. Thursday, February 16

6. Thursday, February 23

7. Thursday, March 1

8. Thursday, March 8

   Thursday, March 15 — No class (spring break)

9. Thursday, March 22

10. Thursday, March 29

11. Thursday, April 5

12. Thursday, April 12

13. Thursday, April 19

14. Thursday, April 26

    Thursday, May 6 — No class (reading day)

Other resources

1. You should be familiar with the provisions of the TAMU Student Rules, especially those dealing with the following:
   • part one, section 7 on excused absences, and
   • part one, section 20 on academic misconduct, which includes plagiarism, lying to your instructor, and other things.
   If you need guidance on what counts as plagiarism, first work through this on-line exercise: http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~gary/intro/plagiarism.index.html, then ask your instructors if you have any questions.

2. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a top-notch reference work on philosophy.

3. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy is also pretty good.

4. And The International Society for Environmental Ethics maintains a searchable database of publications on environmental philosophy, which includes animal ethics.

5. You might be interested in attending some of the Philosophy Department's public talks or colloquia.

6. Dr. Varner's related book manuscript is here: http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~gary/abstract.newbook.html (use "guest" and "enter" when prompted for an ID and a password, respectively).

7. And TAMU's Philosophy Department has an Applied Ethics Initiative that includes animal ethics and environmental ethics.