Research Portfolio Jeﬀ Sebo

Research Portfolio Jeff Sebo Contents • Research Statement • Book: Food, Animals, and the Environment • Works In Progress • Published and Under Review • Dissertation Summary Research Statement I work at the intersection of bioethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. My current research focuses on two main topics in these areas: agency and moral status, and the ethics of what we eat. My current work on agency and moral status focuses on two main issues. The first is psychological multiplicity. Many of us have different beliefs, desires, and plans in different situations, and we also construct different self-narratives in different situations in order to make sense of this multiplicity. I argue that our different \selves" have the same kind of moral relationship with each other that we have with other people, and I explore the implications of this idea for topics such as the nature of akrasia, the nature of the self, and the morality of self-binding. Second, I also work on the relationship between human and nonhuman agency and moral status. In particular, I make a distinction between \perceptual agency" and \propositional agency," and I argue that many nonhumans are perceptual agents and many humans are both kinds of agent. I then argue that perceptual agency is sufficient for the right to life, liberty, and property but not for the right to autonomy or for moral responsibility; and that, insofar as humans act exclusively as perceptual agents, we have the same moral status that nonhumans have when they act this way. My current work on the ethics of what we eat focuses on two main issues as well. The first is the ethics of food production and consumption. For example, I am currently working with Christopher Schlottmann on a book on the ethics of animal agriculture; with Jennifer Jacquet on a paper on the ethics of aquaculture; and with Dale Jamieson on a paper on the ethics of in vitro meat. I am also currently working on several papers in which I apply models of risk and uncertainty, as well as the idea of \absurd morality" and \esoteric morality," to the ethics of what we eat. Second, I also work on the ethics of food activism and advocacy. For instance, I argue that the debate between abolition and regulation in food activism rests on a false dilemma: we can pursue both approaches at the same time, and they support each other more than they conflict. I also argue that we should take an intersectional approach to food activism that emphasizes the respects in which our food system contributes to racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of domination and oppression - but that we also have to take care to make these comparisons in a non-appropriative way. Moving forward, my aim is to continue developing these ideas while also exploring related topics in bioethics including self-narrativity in psychotherapy, consent in human and nonhuman subject research, and risk and uncertainty in the development of research protocols. 1 Book: Food, Animals, and the Environment I am currently working with Chris Schlottmann on a book titled Food, Animals, and the Environment: An Ethical Approach (Routledge, forthcoming). This book explores the impacts of industrial and non- industrial food systems for humans, nonhumans, public health, and the environment, as well as the moral questions that these impacts raise for food production, consumption, activism, and advocacy. Chapter 1. Understanding Food, Animals, and the Environment In this chapter we introduce basic descriptive concepts that will be relevant to this book including natural, local, organic, industrial, the Anthropocene, wilderness, and domestication. We also provide a basic review of the nature of agriculture and food production, discussing how agriculture and food production pose special challenges for moral and political philosophy by virtue of being characterized by different kinds of impact on different human and nonhuman populations. Chapter 2. Valuing Food, Animals, and the Environment In this chapter we introduce the basic normative concepts that will be relevant to this book. We begin by presenting several major moral theories and discussing how these theories apply to our use of animals in food. Next, we discuss the special moral challenges that arise in global collective action problems like climate change, and we explore the difference between individual, collective, and corporate responsibility for the harms that we cause through our consumption. Chapter 3. Industrial Animal Agriculture This chapter explores the impacts of industrial agriculture. We begin by discussing environmental impacts, focusing on conversion ratios, greenhouse gasses, and multi-factor environmental assessment. We then discuss the public health impacts, focusing on malnutrition as well as global pandemics. Next, we discuss the impacts on workers, including low pay, dangerous work, and limited political visibility. Finally, we discuss the impacts on nonhuman animals in the meat as well as in the dairy industry. Chapter 4. Alternatives to Industrial Animal Agriculture This chapter explores alternatives to industrial agriculture. For example, we discuss concerns about methane emissions in free range food systems, the carbon footprint of local food systems, the toxicity of organic food systems, land use change due to heritage food systems, and the possibility of feeding a rising population through non-industrial methods more generally. The aim of this chapter is to provide a balanced perspective on the strengths and limitations of alternative food systems. Chapter 5. The Ethics of Food Production and Consumption This chapter focuses on the ethics of food production and consumption. We begin by discussing technical solutions like GMOs, biotechnology, in-vitro meat, vertical farming, and market-based systems. We then discuss the ethics of what we eat, considering diets based on the moral status of what we eat (e.g., conscientious omnivorism, pescetarianism, demi-vegetarianism, vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism) as well as other kinds of considerations (e.g., locavorism, freeganism, fair/direct trade). Chapter 6. The Ethics of Food Activism and Advocacy This chapter focuses on the ethics of food activism and advocacy. We begin by discussing whether individual, consumer-based approaches to food activism are effective. We then discuss ethical issues that arise for non-consumer-driven approaches to food activism. This includes debates between abolition vs. regulation, intersectional vs. single-issue activism, and legal vs. illegal activism. We end with a discussion about navigating conflicts among human rights, animal rights and environmental ethics. 2 Works In Progress Animal Minds and the Ethics of Uncertainty In this paper I consider how we should treat nonhuman animals in cases of uncertainty about whether or not they are sentient. I argue that we should apply standard models of risk and uncertainty to our thinking about this issue, which means that we have two options to choose from. First, we can accept a \precautionary principle" that requires us to treat all nonhuman animals as sentient in cases of uncertainty. Second, we can accept an \expected utility principle" that requires us to multiply our subjective probability that nonhuman animals are sentient by the amount of pleasure and pain that they would be experiencing if they were. I argue that both principles have significant strengths and limitations; but I also argue that, no matter which principle we select, it will imply that we have a moral obligation to treat many nonhuman animals much better than we currently do. Animals and the Circumstances of Justice Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka argue in Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights that domesticated animals should count as citizens according to liberalism. I argue that this idea raises important questions for liberalism. For example, how low can the ratio of \autonomous citizens" to \non-autonomous citizens" get before we are no longer in the circumstances of justice with each other? Moreover, if we fall below that ratio, how should we cope with this fact? I argue that the ratio of autonomous citizens to non-autonomous citizens can get very low before we are no longer in the circumstances of justice. I then argue that, if we fall below this very low ratio, then we should cope with this fact in two main ways: by accepting what Ronald Dworkin calls the \slavery of the talented," and by accepting what Robert Nozick calls \Kantianism for people, utilitarianism for animals." Animals and Shared Agency In this paper I argue that nonhumans can share agency in the same kind of way that humans can. I begin by making a distinction between \propositional agency," which only humans have, and \perceptual agency," which humans and nonhumans share. I then argue that perceptual agency allows for the same kind of interlocking structure that propositional agency does, and therefore, on a widely accepted account of shared agency, we can share both kinds of agency. For instance, if you and I walk together because we each intend to walk with the other, then we count as a shared propositional agent during our walk. Similarly, I argue, if my dog and I walk together because we each experience the other as to-be-walked-with, then we count as a shared perceptual agent during our walk. Finally, I argue that if nonhumans can share agency, then they can also share certain moral and political rights. The Ethics of Aquaculture (with Jennifer Jacquet) In this paper we discuss the ethics of aquaculture from an ecological as well as an animal welfare perspective. We start with a brief history of aquaculture that emphasizes our recent practice of domesticating aquatic species for food: for example, we currently farm over 440 marine species and have domesticated over 100 in the past decade alone. We then argue that most current aquatic farms harm animals and the environment in the same kinds of ways that terrestrial factory farms do, and therefore we should not produce food this way or consume food produced this way.

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