The societal structures that oppress animals go hand in hand with systems that harm humans. American philosopher Alice Crary encourages us to view animal justice in a broader perspective and reflect upon the relationship between humans and animals.
Professor of Philosophy Alice Crary visits the University of Stavanger to talk about animal ethics and inter-species solidarity.
Register for this free event
Despite the last half century’s unprecedented international efforts to “save the whales,” whales are now washing up on beaches in increasing numbers. Over the last fifty years, the world has lost billions of aerial birds; insect populations have suffered massive declines involving reductions in biodiversity as well as biomass; and even animals in places least touched by human beings are dying off in greater numbers as the planet warms.
Observations like these – reports from an unfolding sixth mass extinction – have sparked new interest in justice for animals, an idea that, until recently, was mostly rejected as incoherent or, at best, fringe. Although animal justice is now taken more seriously, it is often wrongly treated as an isolable project that those of us committed to social justice for humans can take or leave.
In this year's Henrik Steffens Lecture, professor in philosophy Alice Crary will argue that meaningful efforts to combat the globe’s most grievous injustices to humans cannot be disentangled from efforts to combat terrible wrongs to animals. Structures of advanced industrial-consumerist society substantially drive the gathering biocide, and the movement for climate justice shows us that these same structures reliably reproduce terrible injustices to racialized people the world over and that Earth’s ecological crisis is simultaneously a racial justice crisis.
Over centuries, structurally connected injustices to humans and animals have become conceptually intertwined through racist and other hateful rhetoric that degrades members of human outgroups by comparing them to animals. How can we address these links between animal justice and social justice and put ourselves on a still-available path to a just and livable future for humans and animals alike?
Sign up for the Henrik Steffens Lecture 2024. Welcome!
This event is open and free for all.
Doors open at 6 pm. Enjoy some light refreshments and the cozy atmosphere.
The lecture starts at 6.30 pm.
See also: Seminar with Alice Crary on Friday 22 November