6 Degrees of Cats

The Purr-fect Life: Cats, Kantian Ethics and Karma!

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Dive DEEP into the meaning of life...through cats...with the help of experts in Western and Eastern philosophy on this episode of 6 Degrees of Cats, the world's #1 (and only) cat-themed culture, history and science podcast.

Dr. Abigail Levin, an animal ethics professor at Niagara University, returns to the podcast to explore our duty through deontological (say that five times fast!) ethics according to one Immanuel Kant, after a few false starts with the fathers of so-called Western philosophy: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Dr. Levin, a practicing Buddhist, is joined by fellow Buddhist and animal ethicist Janet Gyatso, Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School, whose lifelong love of cats and compassion for animals provide a focused lens on cats and Buddhism.

You will be as enlightened as host Captain Kitty (Amanda B.) by the end of this playful and profound episode in which we assess the life we have chosen for our pets - and the life they might have chosen if they had their say.

Support the podcast, sign up for The Captain’s Log, the companion podcast newsletter and learn about way$ to help keep this ship afloat for our next season here: linktr.ee/6degreesofcats.

Referenced episodes:

  • The Golden Age of Cats: The Medieval Middle East, Muezza and the Mark of Muhammad (or Mary)
  • Community CATalysts: Kosovans Caring for Their Animal Survivors

    • About the experts:

    • Janet Gyatso, Ph.D., M.A., is Harvard Divinity School's first Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. She is a specialist in Buddhist studies with concentration on Tibetan and South Asian cultural and intellectual history. 
  • Abigail Levin, Ph.D., J.D., is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Niagara University in Buffalo, New York. Her primary research interests are in political philosophy, animal ethics, feminism and philosophy of race and gender. She recently published a book about celebrity animals and the ethical obligations arising from keeping animals in captivity.

    • Producer, writer, editor, sound designer, host, basically everything*

    • Captain Kitty (Amanda B.)

    * with co-executive producers Binky & Snuggles

    Animal voices include:

    • Binky & Snuggles _^..^_

    Music:

    • Leathered: "Look Alive" © 2022
  • Samples licensed via Loopcloud
  • Additional sound effects from Pixabay.com

    • Logo design:

    • Edward Anthony © 2024 (Instagram: @itsmyunzii)

    Research used:

    • A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). Code of Hammurabi: Laws & facts. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/hammurabi 
  • Attending to animals. Harvard Divinity School (HDS). (2019, October 29). https://hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/10/29/attending-to-animals 
  • Burnham, D. (n.d.). Immanuel Kant: Aesthetics. https://iep.utm.edu/kantaest/ 
  • Camenzind, S. (2021, February 16). Kantian ethics and the animal turn. on the contemporary defence of Kant’s indirect duty view. Animals : an open access journal from MDPI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7919796/ 
  • Descartes, R. (1972). Treatise on man (T. S. Hall, Trans.). Harvard University Press. 
  • Hatfield, G. (2023, October 23). René Descartes. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/ 
  • Jones, T. (2014, February 8). Two meanings of karma. The Buddhist Centre. https://thebuddhistcentre.com/westernbuddhistreview/two-meanings-karma 
  • Karlis, N. (2021, December 13). A “talking” cat is giving scientists insight into how felines think. Salon. https://www.salon.com/2021/12/12/a-talking-cat-is-giving-scientists-insight-into-how-felines-think/ 
  • Plato. (1980). The Allegory of the Cave. In The Republic of Plato. essay, Cambridge Univ. Press. 
  • Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Islam: Empire of faith - profiles - Muhammad. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/profilesmuhammed.html 
  • Scharping, N. (2023, March 21). How the ancient code of Hammurabi reveals a society both similar and alien to ours. Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-the-ancient-code-of-hammurabi-reveals-a-society-both-similar-and-alien
  • Wormald, B. (2015, April 2). Buddhists [Pew Research Center]. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/buddhists/
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