Martha C. Nussbaum Discusses Ethical Animal Treatment at Harvard

UChicago Philosophy Professor Discusses Ethics of Animal Rights

University of Chicago Philosophy Professor Martha C. Nussbaum said that society should grant enhanced legal protections for animals and reconsider the ethical principles governing human-animal interactions at a Friday talk in Boylston Hall.

Nussbaum’s talk — titled ‘Working With and For Animals: Getting the Theoretical Framework Right’ — was the opening keynote lecture for the 12th annual Harvard Graduate Conference in Political Theory. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and the Government Department and concluded with a discussion between Nussbaum and Priyanka Menon ’16, a graduate student in Government.

Nussbaum began her talk, which was derived from a January article published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, by criticizing current animal rights theories developed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham and Nonhuman Rights Project founder Stephen M. Wise. According to Nussbaum, Wise’s approach over-relies on animals’ resemblance to humans, and Bentham’s framework depends on a potentially faulty conception of animal pleasure and pain.

Read more at The Harvard Crimson