Carnival of the Animals

Philosophy Carnivals are compilations of blog posts.  This one focuses on animals and philosophy.  Plus, there's a section at the end on "everything else."  Find out how to host a future carnival here and contact Richard Chappell if you're interested (r.chappell@gmail.com).

For your listening pleasure, The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens:

ANIMALS AND ETHICS

At Practical Ethics, Lena Groeger discusses Thomas White's proposal for dolphins to be classified persons of the sea.

Richard writes an interesting post about Species and Cognitive Enhancement at Philosophy, et cetera.

Check out this post at Inhumanities for a continental perspective on the distinction between animal welfare and animal rights.

Ashok presents Briefly Noted: Xenophon, "Art of Horsemanship" posted at Rethink.

As for little tiny creatures, T presents Catenin Seahorse at Secret Lives of Proteins.

Ifat Glassman gets ultimate with What is ethics and why do we need it? posted at Psychology of Selfishness.

ANIMAL MINDS, ETHICS, GOD

Can and should pain be engineered out of livestock?  Adam Shriver argues  yes and yes in a post (submitted by Gualtiero Piccinini) at Philosophy of Brains.

Shriver made the same argument in a New York Times editorial last week; see criticism by Stephanie Ernst here. He defends himself in the comments.

I wrote about Shriver's proposal last fall--here and here.  Some find it objectionable that Shriver wants animal advocates to be involved in reforming (as well as ending) factory farming.  I defend "conscientious participation" in this post about lab vet Larry Carbone.

Is animal pain an impediment to theism?  Alexander Pruss says no at Prosblogion.  (And follows up with this.)

Outside philosophyville:  here's a post about theism and animal pain from evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who isn't impressed with the apologetics of journalist Andrew Sullivan.

If you don't understand consciousness, you can't understand any minds, whether "ours" or "theirs." Richard Brown presents Welcome and Opening Remarks « Consciousness Online posted at Consciousness Online.

Avery Archer discusses Rational Transitions and Hurley’s Monkey posted at The Space of Reasons.

GREEN AND GREENER

Wayne Yuen worries about whether dogs are green at Piles of Philosophy.  In the same vein, Sheril Kirshenbaum asks "Time to Eat the Dog?" at a blog outside philosophyville.

Thom Brooks discusses endangered species in It's (almost) the end of the world as we know it at The Brooks Blog.

REFRESHMENTS

Mylan Engel promotes switching to a vegan diet as a New Year's Resolution at Animal Ethics.

Outside philosophyville, there's this about gradual dietary change from novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Martin presents Does Mathematics Need New Directions? posted at Enigmania, with honorable animal-mention at the end!

Aaron Kenna presents  Science, Induction, and the Positive Relevance View of Evidence and  Andrew Brenner presents The Truth About Socrates both at Florida Student Philosophy Blog.

noah greenstein presents Genetic Drift and the Uncertainty Principle posted at Blog of Noah Greenstein.

cs presents The Sexual Contract posted at Cold SnapDragon.

Bryan presents Special Relativity and the Bell Theorems posted at Soul Physics

Kevin lande presents Crane on the Intentionality of Emotions posted at Philosophengang - The Philosopher's Walk.

Wesley presents Theories of Pretense posted at Go Grue!.

Madeleine Flannagan presents Property Rights: Blackstone, Locke and the Legislative Scheme Part I posted at MandM

Jonathan Phillips presents Kant and Experimental Philosophy posted at Yeah, OK, But Still.

Carnival of the Animals

Philosophy Carnivals are compilations of posts from philosophy blogs. (Here's one from the past.) I'm going to be hosting a "carnival of the animals" mid-February. Posts on all things animal (ethics, law, animal minds, animals and theology, animals and the environment) will be included. If you have posts you'd like to contribute or know of posts, please send me a link: jkazez@smu.edu

Carnival of the Animals

Way, way way ahead of time, I know...

The mid-February Philosopher's Carnival will be here, and it will be a Carnival of the Animals.  Please submit blog posts on topics such as:

• Animal minds  -- So animals feel pain? Are they "trapped in the present"? Do they have a sense of self? Are animals capable of any sort of morality?  Etc.
  
• Animals and theology -- Is animal pain an insoluble difficulty for theists? Etc.
• Animals and ethics -- Lots and lots and lots of topics.
  
• Animals and the environment --Does it matter if species go extinct? Do wild animals matter in a special way? Etc.
• Vegetarians, Vegans, Ethical Omnivores -- Lots of topics.
• Hunting -- Is it defensible?  Is a hunter's use of deception unethical?
  
• Factory farming and humane farming-- Should humane reforms be supported? 
• New frontiers -- Should we pursuit innovations like "lab meat"?  Should we genetically engineer pain-free livestock?
• Ethics and activism -- Which strategies are ethically dubious?
• Feminist approaches -- Does feminism shed light on issues about our treatment of animals?

The possibilities are endless. Send links to jkazez@smu.edu