Animals and Ethics

3 cr · Undergraduate

This course surveys the emerging field of "critical animal studies." The course centers on questions of human and nonhuman animal difference as these have been debated in a number of religious and cultural traditions. It also engages traditional and contemporary approaches to animal ethics. Discussions will also focus on such pressing issues as global warming, species extinction, loss of biodiversity, pollution, and threats to population health – all of which can be traced to multinational industrialized breeding and marketing of animals and/or of experimentally developed animal "biocapital." Students may not hold credit for both RLGN 2610 and the former RLGN 2600.