Free Public Debate on Animal Rights on November 16th in Boulder

[Guest guest]

** Please forward this announcement and flyer to anyone in Colorado

you think might be interested in attending this debate. **

 

What: Debate on " What We Owe to Animals " with Dr. David Barnett and

Dr. Robert Hanna

 

Where: Old Main Chapel on the campus of the University of Colorado at

Boulder.

 

When: Thursday, November 16th from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m.

 

About the debate:

 

How ought humans treat other animals? Should we regard their

interests--their pleasures and pains--as equally important as those of

humans? Is our failure to do so a vicious form of discrimination like

racism and sexism?

 

Our answers to these questions could radically alter our lives, our

society, and our laws. If animals are morally equal to humans, then

we might be morally obliged to close down the factory farms that put

inexpensive meat and other animal products on store shelves, to outlaw

the use of animals in medical experiments to find treatments for human

diseases, and to abolish rodeos, circuses, hunting, and fishing as

cruelty to the animals. On the other hand, if human interests trump

animal interests, then would it be morally acceptable to torture

animals for fun? In other words, would we have any obligations to

animals at all--and on what grounds?

 

These are the philosophic questions to be discussed in next Thursday's

debate between Dr. David Barnett and Dr. Robert Hanna on " What We Owe

to Animals. " The debate is sponsored by " Think! " --a new series of

public lectures sponsored by the Center for Values and Social Policy

in the Philosophy Department of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

All " Think! " events are free and intended for the public. Members of

the media are welcome to attend. For more information, visit:

 

www.colorado.edu/philosophy/center/think.shtml

 

" Think! " will also sponsor a lecture on Thursday, December 7th on

" Integral Ecology " by Michael Zimmerman (CU/Boulder)

 

For further information on the series, contact Dr. Robert Pasnau at

(303) 492-4837 or Robert.Pasnau.

 

These lectures are funded through the generosity of The Collins

Foundation.