Herbivorize Predators

In this episode, Asher shares many of his thoughts on wild animal suffering and how to address it. He claims that we must first gain a solid grasp of the welfare of wild animals, apart from any normative commitments, before we can responsibly intervene to reduce suffering on large scale. He proposes that the scientific discipline of welfare biology be established towards that end. Some other topics we discuss include effective altruism, philosophy and science, the evolution of life history strategies, conservation science, animal welfare science, the feasibility of turning predators into herbivores, spreading non-speciesist values, suffering abolition, and directed panspermia. 

Asher Soryl is a PhD candidate at the University of Otago Bioethics Centre. His research focuses on philosophical issues related to animal welfare - in particular, the welfare of wild animals, and his educational background is in analytic philosophy. 

AsherSoryl.com

In this episode Canadian philosopher Kyle Johannsen and I discuss the moral problem of predation and what can be done about it. We cover the positive view of nature, positive and negative rights/duties, beneficence, justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of 3 plausible ways of ending predation: 1) eliminating predatory species, 2) herbivorizing, and 3) separating predators from preys. In doing so, among other topics we talk about intrinsic value, biodiversity, ecosystem stability, over-exploitation by herbivores, urgency, species essentialism, animal experimentation, gene drives, genetic painkillers, moral capacity enhancement, turning R strategists into K strategists, eliminating parasites, engineering plants for predators (a part of herbivorization), environmentalism, welfare biology, and what we should be doing now.

For more information on Kyle Johannsen and his work:

https://philpeople.org/profiles/kyle-...

https://trentu.academia.edu/KyleJohan...

Kyle Johannsen is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Kingston. He is primarily interested in social and political philosophy, and in animal and environmental ethics. His first monograph – “A Conceptual Investigation of Justice” – was published with Routledge in 2018. Though many political philosophers and ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. In “Wild Animal Ethics”, he explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. Among other things, Johannsen’s currently guest-editing a topical collection for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics entitled ‘Positive Duties to Wild Animals’.

Art by: Paula Meninato

https://paulameninato.com

Music by: Joey Kukura and Matt Harnett

Recorded in September 2021

In this episode Canadian philosopher Kyle Johannsen and I discuss the moral problem of predation and what can be done about it. We cover the positive view of nature, positive and negative rights/duties, beneficence, justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of 3 plausible ways of ending predation: 1) eliminating predatory species, 2) herbivorizing, and 3) separating predators from preys. In doing so, among other topics we talk about intrinsic value, biodiversity, ecosystem stability, over-exploitation by herbivores, urgency, species essentialism, animal experimentation, gene drives, genetic painkillers, moral capacity enhancement, turning R strategists into K strategists, eliminating parasites, engineering plants for predators (a part of herbivorization), environmentalism, welfare biology, and what we should be doing now.

For more information on Kyle Johannsen and his work:

https://philpeople.org/profiles/kyle-...

https://trentu.academia.edu/KyleJohan...

Kyle Johannsen is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Kingston. He is primarily interested in social and political philosophy, and in animal and environmental ethics. His first monograph – “A Conceptual Investigation of Justice” – was published with Routledge in 2018. Though many political philosophers and ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. In “Wild Animal Ethics”, he explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. Among other things, Johannsen’s currently guest-editing a topical collection for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics entitled ‘Positive Duties to Wild Animals’.

Art by: Paula Meninato

https://paulameninato.com

Music by: Joey Kukura and Matt Harnett

Recorded in September 2021

A conversation between myself and my friend Joey about the first half (the first 3 chapters) of the book “Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering” by Kyle Johannsen and published by Routledge earlier this year (2021). It was recorded primarily in July of 2021.

Joey Kukura is a guitarist by profession (and he kindly made the music for the channel-podcast) and lives in Denton, Texas, where he recently graduated from the University of North Texas with a music degree. Some years ago, after having an interest in animal related ethics, he became vegan and anti-speciesist and lately has been branching out into wild animal suffering and suffering related ethics in general.

Kyle Johannsen is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Kingston. He is primarily interested in social and political philosophy, and in animal and environmental ethics. His first monograph – A Conceptual Investigation of Justice – was published with Routledge in 2018. Though many political philosophers and ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. In Wild Animal Ethics, he explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. Among other things, Johannsen’s currently guest-editing a topical collection for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics entitled ‘Positive Duties to Wild Animals’.

For more information on Kyle Johannsen and to order the book:
https://www.routledge.com/authors/i16...

Art by: Paula Meninato
https://paulameninato.com

Music by: Joey Kukura and Matt Harnett

A conversation between myself and my friend Joey about the first half (the first 3 chapters) of the book “Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering” by Kyle Johannsen and published by Routledge earlier this year (2021). It was recorded primarily in July of 2021.

Joey Kukura is a guitarist by profession (and he kindly made the music for the channel-podcast) and lives in Denton, Texas, where he recently graduated from the University of North Texas with a music degree. Some years ago, after having an interest in animal related ethics, he became vegan and anti-speciesist and lately has been branching out into wild animal suffering and suffering related ethics in general.

Kyle Johannsen is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Kingston. He is primarily interested in social and political philosophy, and in animal and environmental ethics. His first monograph – A Conceptual Investigation of Justice – was published with Routledge in 2018. Though many political philosophers and ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. In Wild Animal Ethics, he explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. Among other things, Johannsen’s currently guest-editing a topical collection for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics entitled ‘Positive Duties to Wild Animals’.

For more information on Kyle Johannsen and to order the book:
https://www.routledge.com/authors/i16...

Art by: Paula Meninato
https://paulameninato.com

Music by: Joey Kukura and Matt Harnett

An interview/conversation with Eze Paez on the topic of "paradise engineering", that is, re-engineering the biosphere (and ultimately other worlds) so that sentient beings have the best possible lives.

https://ezepaez.com

Eze Paez is currently a Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Fellow at the Law & Philosophy Group of Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He is also a board member of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics, a think tank dedicated to the promotion of the full consideration of nonhuman animals in all areas of public life.

He was previously an FCT Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society of the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal). Before that he was employed as a postdoctoral researcher and teacher in legal philosophy at Pompeu Fabra University’s Law Department. He earned his Ph.D. in Moral Philosophy at Pompeu Fabra University in 2014, where he also obtained his Bachelor’s (2007) and Master’s (2008) degrees in Law.

His current research focuses on our reasons to alleviate wild animal suffering and on developing a neorepublican approach to the political status of nonhuman animals. 

Eze also advocates for the full ethical and political consideration of animals outside academia. For many years he was a spokesperson for Animal Ethics, a non-profit aligned with the values of effective altruism. He now frequently collaborates with grassroots activists in Catalonia. He strongly believes in the need to engage in politics in order to create a better world for all sentient beings, including nonhuman animals.

recorded primarily in February 2021

Art by: Paula Meninato

https://paulameninato.com

Music by: Joey Kukura