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Animal Studies in Philosophy

Studies relating to animals have been important themes in philosophy since antiquity. Dr. Paul Thompson, the W. K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at MSU, raises these philosophical questions regarding animals in classes and seminars designed to educate students about the philosophical underpinnings of animal studies.

Animal studies has a place in many of the key subfields of philosophy such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind and political philosophy. Thompson's Animal Ethics class is central to the issue of ethics and is focused on the moral standing of animals and their ability to reason. Questions such as whether animals experience pain or deprivation, among others, are raised in the classroom.

The question of whether animals have the ability to reason is always raised when looking at animals from a philosophical standpoint. On the surface this seems like a fairly straightforward question. However, it must first be determined what reason is in order to decide whether animals have this quality. "Previous work on animals teaches us that there are probably a lot of fairly specific and distinct kinds of activities that illustrate reasoning," said Thompson. "But, you have to ask whether that means that the animal has some kind of mental map of the world or if they are simply responding to stimuli."

The answers to these questions have moral implications for institutions in the animal industry, said Thompson. Over the years, philosophers have contributed to the development of guidelines for the use of animals in scientific research. If it is determined that animals can indeed feel pain, how are people in the veterinarian or animal research profession to respond?
The Animal Ethics course is intended for students across all disciplines, especially those who are focusing on pre-veterinarian, animal agriculture or zoology program studies. "It's a broadly applicable course that is useful to anybody who's interested in any dimension in cognitive science," said Thompson. He added that the course is not just about studying animals. "You study animals to understand them just as much as to understand people," said Thompson.

Dr. Thompson teaches a class titled Animal Studies in Philosophy.  For more information, please contact Professor Thompson at thomp649@msu.edu.