Can Animals be Persons? In conversation with Mark Rowlands - Theos Think Tank - Understanding faith. Enriching society.

Home / Comment / Podcasts

Can Animals be Persons? In conversation with Mark Rowlands

Can Animals be Persons? In conversation with Mark Rowlands

Nick Spencer speaks with University of Miami Professor, Mark Rowlands. 14/05/2024

The idea that non–human animals should be recognised as legal persons has gained traction over recent years, and is the subject of numerous court cases. But underlying the legal and indeed empirical questions here, are some pretty deep philosophical ones.

What actually is a person? What role does rationality or consciousness or language play? And depending on our answers to those questions, could a non–human animal ever qualify as a person? 

In this week’s episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Mark Rowlands about his book Can Animals be Persons?

Buy a copy of the book here.

 


Interested in this? Share it on social media. Join our monthly e–newsletter to keep up to date with our latest research and events. And check out our Supporter Programme to find out how you can help our work.

Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023), The Political Samaritan: how power hijacked a parable (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 14 May 2024

Get regular email updates on our latest research and events.

Please confirm your subscription in the email we have sent you.

Want to keep up to date with the latest news, reports, blogs and events from Theos? Get updates direct to your inbox once or twice a month.

Thank you for signing up.