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272The Desperate Search for Meaning in LifeIn Neon Genesis Evangelion and Philosophy, Carus Books.. pp. 3-12. 2022.
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582Life, mind, agency: Why Markov blankets fail the test of evolutionBehavioral and Brain Sciences 45. 2022.There has been much criticism of the idea that Friston's free-energy principle can unite the life and mind sciences. Here, we argue that perhaps the greatest problem for the totalizing ambitions of its proponents is a failure to recognize the importance of evolutionary dynamics and to provide a convincing adaptive story relating free-energy minimization to organismal fitness.
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767Why are We Here? Evangelion and the Desperate Search for Meaning in LifeIn Neon Genesis Evangelion and Philosophy, Carus Books. pp. 3-12. 2022.
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26Assessing measures of animal welfareBiology and Philosophy 37 (4): 1-24. 2022.There are many decision contexts in which we require accurate information on animal welfare, in ethics, management, and policy. Unfortunately, many of the methods currently used for estimating animal welfare in these contexts are subjective and unreliable, and thus unlikely to be accurate. In this paper, I look at how we might apply principled methods from animal welfare science to arrive at more accurate scores, which will then help us in making the best decisions for animals. I construct and a…Read more
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27Pathological complexity and the evolution of sex differencesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 45. 2022.Benenson et al. provide a compelling case for treating greater investment into self-protection among females as an adaptive strategy. Here, we wish to expand their proposed adaptive explanation by placing it squarely in modern state-based and behavioural life-history theory, drawing on Veit'spathological complexityframework. This allows us to make sense of alternative “lifestyle” strategies, rather than pathologizing them.
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265The sentience shift in animal researchThe New Bioethics 28 (4): 299-314. 2022.One of the primary concerns in animal research is ensuring the welfare of laboratory animals. Modern views on animal welfare emphasize the role of animal sentience, i.e. the capacity to experience subjective states such as pleasure or suffering, as a central component of welfare. The increasing official recognition of animal sentience has had large effects on laboratory animal research. The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (Low et al., University of Cambridge, 2012) marked an official scie…Read more
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258More Than Zombies: Considering the Animal Subject in De-ExtinctionEthics, Policy and Environment 25 (2): 121-124. 2022.Katz (2022) provides a range of arguments drawn from the environmental philosophy literature to criticize the conceptualisation and practice of de-extinction. The discussion is almost completely de...
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42Does utilitarianism need a rethink? Review of Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms' The Pursuit of HappinessJournal of Economic Methodology 29 (3): 256-261. 2021.Philosophers have typically shown high confidence in their evaluations of Utilitarianism, whether as an endorsement or a disparagement. Rarely, however, has much effort been spent on investigating...
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21The Measurability of Subjective Animal WelfareJournal of Consciousness Studies 29 (3-4): 150-179. 2022.One of the most challenging questions surrounding subjective animal welfare is whether these states are measurable: that is, is subjective welfare an appropriately quantifiable target for scientific enquiry and ethical and deliberative calculation? The availability of several different types of measurement scale raises important questions regarding whether subjective experience has the right properties to be meaningfully represented on the types of scale required for different applications. This…Read more
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1546How Should We Study Animal Consciousness Scientifically?Journal of Consciousness Studies 29 (3-4): 8-28. 2022.This editorial introduces the Journal of Consciousness Studies special issue on "Animal Consciousness". The 15 contributors and co-editors answer the question "How should we study animal consciousness scientifically?" in 500 words or fewer.
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477Animal SentiencePhilosophy Compass 17 (5). 2022.‘Sentience’ sometimes refers to the capacity for any type of subjective experience, and sometimes to the capacity to have subjective experiences with a positive or negative valence, such as pain or pleasure. We review recent controversies regarding sentience in fish and invertebrates and consider the deep methodological challenge posed by these cases. We then present two ways of responding to the challenge. In a policy-making context, precautionary thinking can help us treat animals appropriatel…Read more
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218One of the biggest problems in applications of animal welfare science is our ability to make comparisons between different individuals, particularly different species. Although welfare science provides methods for measuring the welfare of individual animals, there’s no established method for comparing measures between individuals. This problem occurs because of the underdetermination of the conclusions given the data, arising from two sources of variation that we cannot distinguish – variation …Read more
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137Book Review of Jenny Gray: Zoo Ethics: The Challenges of Compassionate Conservation (review)Quarterly Review of Biology 92 (2): 149. 2018.
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938A multi-sensory enrichment program for ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) at Auckland Zoo, including a novel feeding deviceProceedings of the 1st Australasian Regional Environmental Enrichment Conference. forthcoming.In modern zoos, enrichment programs have become a standard part of animal care routines. Although 'higher' primates usually receive complex enrichment programs, encompassing many types of enrichment, these are less common for prosimians. These animals often largely receive food-based enrichment, as was previously the case at Auckland Zoo, where the ring-tailed lemur enrichment schedule contained only three different items, all food-related. Lemurs tend to be considered less curious and quick to …Read more
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2270Ethics of Mixed Martial ArtsIn Jason Holt & Marc Ramsay (eds.), The Philosophy of Mixed Martial Arts: Squaring the Octagon, Routledge. pp. 134-149. 2021.
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419Utilitarian Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Non-Pandemic DiseasesAmerican Journal of Bioethics 21 (12): 39-42. 2021.The COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique set of challenges for national governments regarding how to deal with a major international pandemic of almost unprecedented scope. As the pandemic consti...
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541Sentience is the capacity to have feelings, such as feelings of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, warmth, joy, comfort and excitement. It is not simply the capacity to feel pain, but feelings of pain, distress or harm, broadly understood, have a special significance for animal welfare law. Drawing on over 300 scientific studies, we evaluate the evidence of sentience in two groups of invertebrate animals: the cephalopod molluscs or, for short, cephalopods (including octopods, squid and cuttlefish) …Read more
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180What should we do about sheep? The role of intelligence in welfare considerationsAnimal Sentience 25 (23). 2019.
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222Petition to Include Cephalopods as “Animals” Deserving of Humane Treatment under the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory AnimalsHarvard Law School Animal Law and Policy Clinic. forthcoming.
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331The natural behavior debate: Two conceptions of animal welfareJournal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. 2019.The performance of natural behavior is commonly used as a criterion in the determination of animal welfare. This is still true, despite many authors having demonstrated that it is not a necessary component of welfare –some natural behaviors may decrease welfare, while some unnatural behaviors increase it. Here I analyze why this idea persists, and what effects it may have. I argue that the disagreement underlying this debate on natural behavior is not one about which conditions affect welfare, b…Read more
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2120Confined Freedom and Free Confinement: The Ethics of Captivity in Life of PiIn Ádám T. Bogár & Rebeka Sára Szigethy (eds.), Critical Insights: Life of Pi, Salem Press. pp. 119-134. 2020.
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411Evaluating Tradeoffs between Autonomy and Wellbeing in Supported Decision MakingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 21 (11): 21-24. 2021.A core challenge for contemporary bioethics is how to address the tension between respecting an individual’s autonomy and promoting their wellbeing when these ideals seem to come into conflict (Not...
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400Does utilitarianism need a rethink? Review of Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms' The Pursuit of HappinessTandf: Journal of Economic Methodology 1-5. forthcoming..
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2578Flesh Without Blood: The public health argument for synthetic meatJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 20 (3). 2023.
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472Freedom and animal welfareAnimals 4 (11): 1148. 2021.The keeping of captive animals in zoos and aquariums has long been controversial. Many take freedom to be a crucial part of animal welfare and, on these grounds, criticise all forms of animal captivity as harmful to animal welfare, regardless of their provisions. Here, we analyse what it might mean for freedom to matter to welfare, distinguishing between the role of freedom as an intrinsic good, valued for its own sake and an instrumental good, its value arising from the increased ability to pro…Read more
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495The Measurement Problem of ConsciousnessPhilosophical Topics 48 (1): 85-108. 2020.This paper addresses what we consider to be the most pressing challenge for the emerging science of consciousness: the measurement problem of consciousness. That is, by what methods can we determine the presence of and properties of consciousness? Most methods are currently developed through evaluation of the presence of consciousness in humans and here we argue that there are particular problems in application of these methods to nonhuman cases—what we call the indicator validity problem and th…Read more
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