PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY - Human Rights, Class 7: Extensions - Animal Rights

December 13, 2018
7:00pm - 7:00pm

Note: this program will be live via Skype

Extensions - Animal Rights  

There is an enormous amount of confusion about the meaning of "animal rights." In this presentation, Professor Francione will discuss the concept of rights and how it applies in the context of our relationship with nonhuman animals. He will present an argument that, if we accept that animals have moral value and are not just things, we are committed to according animals one right--the right not to be used as property. Our recognition of this one right would have significant consequences in terms of our animal use but, in certain respects, these consequences flow from what most of us already claim to believe concerning the moral status of animals. 

Instructor Gary Francione Instructor Gary L. Francione is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University School of Law in New Jersey. He is also an Honorary Professor (Philosophy) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK). Professor Francione pioneered the field of animal law in the 1980s and, in his 1995 book, Animals, Property, and the Law, he discussed how the status of animals as property means that the interests of animals will never be regarded as morally significant and the standard of animal welfare will always be very low. He has written a number of books and articles on animal rights, the problems with animal welfare, and veganism. He served as Law Clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the United States Supreme Court. His most recent book, co-authored with Anna E. Charlton, is Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach (2015). 

Education

B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester
M.A. in philosophy University of Virginia
J.D. University of Virginia

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The Ohio County Public Library's new eight-week People's University series, Human Rights, will explore the Sources, Critiques, Achievements, Extensions, Deviations, and Challenges of and in the development of what we collectively and, often generically, call "Human Rights." An impressive array of instructors from the fields of philosophy, history, sociology, law, and communications will cover different perspectives on the development of Human Rights from the Ancient Greeks, through the Enlightenment, American, and French Revolutions, to the present. Along the way, we will explore the achievements in Rights from the Magna Carta through the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as the strong critique presented by Karl Marx and the deviations brought on by tyranny in all of its forms. In the modern context, we will look at 20th Century Postwar developments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the idea of Economic Rights, consider the ongoing challenges of extending rights, from the American Civil Rights Movement, through Women's Suffrage, and LGBTQ Rights, while also comparing the American view of Rights to that of Europe and the rest of the world. Finally, we will consider the challenge of sentient non-humans, including Animal Rights and Artificial Intelligence.