Books
Publisher's Description:
Though many ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Kyle Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. Using concepts from moral and political philosophy to analyze the issue of wild animal suffering (WAS), Johannsen explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. He claims that with enough research, genetic editing may one day give us the power to safely intervene without perpetually interfering with wild animals’ liberties.
Questions addressed include:
In what way is nature valuable and is intervention compatible with that value?
Is intervention a requirement of justice?
What are the implications of WAS for animal rights advocacy? What types of intervention are promising?
Expertly moving the debate about human relations with wild animals beyond its traditional confines, Wild Animal Ethics is essential reading for students and scholars of political philosophy and political theory studying animal ethics, environmental ethics, and environmental philosophy.
Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering (New York: Routledge, 2021).
Was reviewed by Thomas Lepeltier in the July 2021 issue of the magazine Sciences Humaines.
Was reviewed by Elizabeth Mullineaux in volume 32 of the journal Animal Welfare.
Was reviewed by B.V.E Hyde for the journal Environmental Values. The review is forthcoming in a future issue of the journal.
Was the subject of a book symposium hosted by the Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E.) research group at Queen’s University. Revised versions of the symposium papers were published in the July 2022 issue of the journal Philosophia.
For information about the book, see the book’s Wikipedia page.
For interviews where I discuss my views about wild animal suffering:
“That’s Moral Progress – You Have to Interfere in Things.” Sentientist Conversations (June 12, 2021).
“Reducing Wild Animal Suffering with Kyle Johannsen.” Knowing Animals (March 22, 2021).
An interview about my book Wild Animal Ethics. New Books in Philosophy (January 11, 2021). In addition to interviewing me, the New Books Network made my book their January 11 ‘Book of the Day’.
Publisher's Description:
Conceptual analysis has fallen out of favor in political philosophy. The influence of figures like John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin has led political philosophy to focus on questions about what should be done, and to ignore questions about the usage of words.
In this book, Kyle Johannsen calls for renewed attention to the manner in which the word ‘justice’ is and should be used. Focusing on the late work of G.A. Cohen, Johannsen argues that debates over both the content and scope of egalitarian justice are, to a large extent, really just conceptual. Whereas some philosophers have been using the term ‘justice’ to refer to one among a plurality of values, others have been using it to refer to institutional rightness. Though the latter use of ‘justice’ is presently more dominant, he argues that much is to be gained from thinking of justice as one value among many. Doing so sheds light on the nature of both democracy and legitimacy, and, paradoxically, makes better sense of the idea that justice is ‘the first virtue of institutions’.
A Conceptual Investigation of Justice (New York: Routledge, 2018).
Was the subject of a book symposium held at the 2018 meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association. After some revisions, the papers presented at the symposium were published in the December 2019 issue of the journal Dialogue.