PAR /EVS   Cultural   Affairs   Lecture

ANIMAL RIGHTS /

ENVIRONMENTAL WRONGS

Tom Regan

Professor of Philosophy, North Carolina State University

Author of The Case for Animal Rights

Thursday, April 7, 2005

Morton Auditorium -- 8 p.m.

For information contact Dr. Schmid 962-3409 or schmidt@uncw.edu

T O M     R E G A N

“Animal Rights and Environmental Wrongs”

Morton Auditorium

8 pm Thursday April 7, 2005

Regan's The Case for Animal Rights (1983) is regarded by many scholars and commentators as the seminal work in the field. He argues that animals have moral rights, especially the right to life. In his view, support for the rights of animals is no different than support for human rights. The development of these views and their presentation in scholarly and activist forums have brought Regan to the forefront as the "philosophical father" of the animal rights movement and as a major figure in the rise of a socially and economically significant phenomenon. In his presentation at UNCW, Tom will connect the theme of animal rights to the theme of environmental ethics—and the ongoing human activities which degrade and destroy our environmental heritage.  Regan, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University is the author of more than twenty books, has won major international awards for film writing and direction, and has presented hundreds of lectures throughout the United States and abroad.

"All of us engaged in the struggle for animal rights tend to forget who we once were. Most of us once ate meat, for example, or unblinkingly dissected nonhuman animals in the lab during high school or college biology courses. Probably we went to a zoo or an aquarium and had a good time. Some of us hunted or fished and enjoyed that, too. The plain fact is, it is not just society that needs changing. The struggle for animal rights is also a struggle with self. What we are trying to do is transform the moral zombie society would like us to be into the morally advanced being we are capable of becoming. All liberation movements have this common theme. That's only one of the ways our Movement resembles other rights movements of the past." —Tom Regan, The Bird in the Cage

On Tom Regan,  http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/archives/exhibits/regan/

Regan’s argument: http://www.cultureandanimals.org/animalrights.htm

Regan archive on animal rights: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/arights/