Kyle Johannsen

Kyle Johannsen is a Canadian philosopher. He specialises in animal and environmental ethics, as well as political and social philosophy. He has particularly engaged with the topic of ethical duties towards wild animals. Johannsen is currently affiliated with Trent University and Queen's University. He is also a host on the New Books Network's ''Animal Studies'' podcast. He is the author of ''A Conceptual Investigation of Justice'' (2018) and '' Wild Animal Ethics'' (2020), and the editor of ''Positive Duties to Wild Animals'' (2024).

Education and career

Johannsen read for a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in history at York University from 2003 to 2007, before reading for an M.A. in philosophy at the same institution from 2007 to 2009. He read for a PhD in philosophy at Queen's University from 2010 to 2015. In his fourth year, Johannsen won first place in the Canadian Philosophical Association's student essay competition for his essay "On the Normative Status of Justice". His dissertation was titled ''On the Conceptual Status of Justice'' and was supervised by Christine Sypnowich.

Johannsen took up a visiting assistant professorship at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, from 2016 to 2017, followed by a visiting assistant professorship at Trent University from 2017 to 2018. He remained a sessional faculty member at Trent from 2018 onward. In 2020, Johannsen became an adjunct assistant professor at Queen's University and a Fellow in Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (APPLE) at the university. His research focuses on social and political philosophy, as well as animal and environmental ethics. Additionally, Johannsen is a host on the New Books Network's ''Animal Studies'' podcast.

Works

Johannsen published ''A Conceptual Investigation of Justice'' in 2018, a revised version of his dissertation as a book. It was the subject of a symposium at the Canadian Philosophical Association's 2018 meeting. The presented papers were later published in '' Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review''.

Johannsen's '' Wild Animal Ethics'' was published in 2020. The book explores whether humans have a duty to reduce wild animal suffering from a deontological perspective and concludes that such duties do exist, examining the implications of this conclusion. The following year, a symposium was held by APPLE on the book at Queen's University. The papers presented at the symposium were later published in ''Philosophia''. Additionally, the book was reviewed by Thomas Lepeltier in the French-language popular science magazine ''Sciences Humaines''.

In 2024, Johannsen published ''Positive Duties to Wild Animals'', a collection of essays by various scholars that aims to advance the interventionist literature on wild animal suffering by employing diverse theoretical frameworks, including some that have not previously been used to establish positive duties toward wild animals. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal ''Ethics, Policy & Environment''.

References

External links

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''Animal Studies'' podcast
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Can Addressing Wild Animal Suffering Prevent the next Pandemic?
- ''Forum Daily'' interview

"That’s moral progress – you have to interfere in things" – Philosopher Kyle Johannsen
- ''Sentientism Conversations'' podcast

Reducing wild animal suffering with Kyle Johannsen
- ''Knowing Animals'' podcast

Kyle Johannsen, "Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering" (Routledge, 2020)
- ''New Books in Philosophy'' podcast

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johannsen, Kyle
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Canadian philosophers
Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston
Academic staff of Trent University
Animal ethicists
Canadian animal rights scholars
Canadian ethicists
Canadian podcasters
Canadian political philosophers
Environmental ethicists
Queen's University at Kingston alumni
Canadian social philosophers
Wild animal suffering writers
York University alumni