The Great Conversation Continues with Dr. Gary Varner
“Personhood, Ethics, and Animal Cognition”
Wednesday, Oct. 23rd at 5:00 in the Faculty Center
Presentation and Discussion with Dr. Gary Varner, Professor and Head, Philosophy Department, Texas A&M
This talk introduces various conceptions of personhood, including the idea that a person is one who has a biographical sense of self and a robust, conscious sense of his or her own past and future. It examines recent empirical research related to deciding the question of which non-human animals, if any, qualify as persons or at least near-persons. The talk concludes by exploring possible implications of these ideas for various human uses of animals, including for food.
