The quick fox jumped over the lazy dog

This book argues that humanity should expand our moral circle — that is, our conception of which beings morally matter for their own sakes — much farther and faster than many philosophers assume, for two related reasons. First, we should be open to the realistic possibility that a vast number of beings can be sentient or otherwise morally significant, including invertebrates and, eventually, AI systems, and we should extend at least some moral consideration to these beings accordingly. Second, we should be open to the realistic possibility that our actions can affect a vast number of beings, including beings who are far away in space and time, and we should extend at least some moral consideration to these beings accordingly as well. The upshot is that we should extend at least some moral consideration to septillions of beings, including and especially future nonhumans, with transformative implications for our lives and societies.

This book is available in print and audio.

This book argues that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. Our use of animals contributes to pandemics, climate change, and other global threats which, in turn, contribute to biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and nonhuman suffering. As a result, we have a moral responsibility to include animals in global health and environmental policy, by reducing our use of them as part of our pandemic and climate change mitigation efforts and increasing our support for them as part of our adaptation efforts. Applying and extending frameworks such as One Health and the Green New Deal, I call for reducing support for factory farming, deforestation, and the wildlife trade; increasing support for humane, healthful, and sustainable alternatives; and considering human and nonhuman needs holistically. I also consider connections with moral status, political status, creation ethics, population ethics, social services, infrastructure, and more.

This book is available in print and audio, and the print edition is available open access.

This book makes the case for chimpanzee rights. Under current US law, one is either a ‘person’ with the capacity for legal rights, or a ‘thing’ without the capacity for legal rights. And currently, all nonhuman animals are classified as things. Focusing on two captive chimpanzees, Kiko and Tommy, we argue that this approach to legal status is unacceptable. We consider the four main conceptions of legal rights and personhood that US courts have affirmed: a species conception, a social contract conception, a community conception, and a capacities conception. We argue that the species conception fails, and that the other conceptions, plausibly interpreted, are compatible with chimpanzee legal personhood. We conclude that if we continue to classify every being as either a person or a thing, then we should classify chimpanzees as persons, not things. We close by considering future directions for animal rights.

This book is available in print.

This book examines some of the main impacts that agriculture has on humans, nonhumans, and the environment, as well as some of the main questions that these impacts raise for the ethics of food production, consumption, and activism. Industrial animal agriculture is much more harmful than alternative food systems. It kills hundreds of billions of animals per year; consumes vast amounts of land, water, and energy; and produces vast amounts of waste, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. These impacts raise difficult ethical questions. What do we owe members of other species, nations, and generations? And what are the ethics of supporting and resisting unnecessarily harmful industries? The discussion ranges over topics such as effective altruism, abolition and regulation, revolution and reform, individual and structural change, single-issue and multi-issue activism, and legal and illegal activism.

This book is available in print.