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Lycoming College will host visiting scholar, author, and philosophy professor Bob Fischer, Ph.D., for a talk entitled, “Comparing Pain Across Species,” on Wednesday, March 5 at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Research Center (HRC). The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the HRC in partnership with the departments of philosophy and biology.
Fischer will discuss his new book, “Weighing Animal Welfare,” which develops a method for making tradeoffs between humans and animals. Published by Oxford University Press in December 2024, the book focuses on the results of a collaborative, 20-month, interdisciplinary project on making interspecies welfare comparisons by answering questions such as “When, if ever, is it better to spend money to improve pig welfare over chicken welfare? Which species of fish is worse off in commercial aquaculture operations? When, if ever, would humans benefit less from a policy than animals stand to lose?”
“When, if ever, is it better to spend money to improve pig welfare over chicken welfare? Which species of fish is worse off in commercial aquaculture operations? When, if ever, would humans benefit less from a policy than animals stand to lose?”
As a senior researcher at Rethink Priorities US, a professor of philosophy at Texas State University, and the director of the Animal Welfare Economics Working Group, Fischer has published widely on problems in applied ethics. In addition to “Weighing Animal Welfare,” his recent books include, “Wildlife Ethics: Animal Ethics in Wildlife Management and Conservation,” and “Animal Ethics - A Contemporary Introduction.” He is also the editor of “The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics.”
Fischer earned a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. More information on Fischer and his publications can be found online.
The Humanities Research Center enhances educational opportunities for students majoring or minoring in any of the humanities by supporting collaborative student-faculty research, internships, guided scholarship, study abroad opportunities, education certification, digital humanities, graduate school placement, and fellowships.