The 2023 Tom Regan Memorial Lecture with Cheryl Abbate and Dale Jamieson

Cheryl Abbate, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, presented the 2023 Tom Regan Memorial Lecture on “The Philosophy of Animal Rights: A Way of Life or Religion?” at Harvard Law School on October 5, 2023.

Many animal advocates have drawn their inspiration from religious traditions: whether the proscriptions against violence in Asian religions, the plea for mercy in Islam, the strictures against cruelty in kashrut laws in Judaism, or in the various strains of Christianity, such as Quakerism, Seventh-Day Adventism, or the Unitarian traditions. However, Cheryl Abbate takes this lineage of activism further in her talk, entitled “The Philosophy of Animal Rights: A Way of Life or Religion?” She asks:

Is animal rights theory just a philosophy or does it contain a set of beliefs that are religious in nature, according to the standards of U.S. law? In this talk, Abbate will contend that the set of beliefs found within the philosophy of animal rights are religious in nature, insofar as they satisfy the “inclusion tests” of religion used by the courts and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In particular, she will discuss how the philosophy of animal rights: (1) addresses fundamental beliefs about animal (human and nonhuman) life, purpose, and death, (2) includes the belief that our moral reality, which includes respect for animals, transcends the “apparent world,” (3) is an ethical system that prescribes a particular way of treating and viewing other creatures, (4) provides a comprehensive set of ethical beliefs, which provide “answers” to most ethical problems and dilemmas that humans face, and (5) is centered upon a seminal text (The Case for Animal Rights) that specifies the tenets of the rights perspective and instructs “followers” to “propagate” those tenants to “non-believers.” And, as Abbate will demonstrate, one implication of this is that many ethical vegans and animal rights activists possess special legal entitlements when it comes to employment law, public accommodation law, and affirmative action policy. This talk will thus leave attendees questioning whether the U.S.’s unique enshrining of religious freedom in its Constitution as a means of affirming fundamental human rights also furthers animal rights.

Cheryl’s respondent was Dale Jamieson, Director, Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, at New York University. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Culture & Animals Foundation and the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard University, and was moderated by Professor Kristen Stilt.