Prof. Oscar Horta Live Guest Chat

Prof. Oscar Horta is this week's Live Guest Chat.

Oscar Horta is a philosopher and antispeciesist activist who is currently a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In 2009-2010 he was a visiting scholar at Rutgers University for the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Oscar is the author of numerous papers and articles about speciesism, bioethics, egalitarianism, and the anthropocentrism of environmentalism. He also has a website in Spanish and English, www.masalladelaespecie.wordpress.com.

He's a member of the Spanish animal rights group “Equanimal” which increases public awareness of animal exploitation through media campaigns, open rescues, street performances, and demonstrations.

Oscar's research explores issues surrounding the moral consideration of nonhuman animals by humans. His work challenges anthropocentric discrimination and other forms of speciesism. He also analyzes the ways in which future human policies would impact the wellbeing of all sentient beings.

After evaluating several commonly used definitions of speciesism, he introduced his own definition: "speciesism is the unjustified disadvantageous consideration or treatment of those who are not classified as belonging to one or more particular species." He defends this definition, which is broader than most definitions, on the grounds that it most closely parallels the generally accepted definitions of other types of arbitrary discrimination, such as racism and sexism.

Oscar has examined the anthropocentrism of various environmentalist views. In his work he attempts to show how some fundamental environmental ideals are not compatible with consideration of the interests of nonhuman animals. He argues that environmentalist values could not be adopted by a nonspeciesist because they require accepting that there are things more valuable than the wellbeing of individuals, such as the continued existence of particular species or the balance of certain natural processes.

He considers the most under-addressed problem in the animal rights and antispeciesist movements to be the suffering of nonhuman animals due to causes other than their use by humans as resources. Oscar disagrees with the view that our only duty towards free living animals is to "Let them be!" He believes we should intervene in the wild to help improve the wellbeing of other animals if we are able to and can do so without causing greater harm.

Oscar considers himself to be an antispeciesist activist. He supports the granting of legal rights to all sentient nonhumans. However, in his opinion, a rights approach does not adequately address the obligations humans have towards other human or nonhuman animals. He advocates “egalitarianism” which requires that we try to make things more fair and help those who are worse off even if their rights have not been violated.

Oscar welcomes the opportunity to engage ARZone members on a range of topics, from his antispeciesist philosophies, to his extensive research, to his advocacy in general.

This is an event for which questions must be submitted to ARZone prior to Midnight GMT, Wednesday 16 March via email to Carolyn@ARZone.net.

ARZone is supportive of education, critical thinking, rational discourse, and aims to provoke intelligent dialogue about issues that most concern members of the animal advocacy movement.

ARZone does not endorse or promote the views of its guests and forum participants, ARZone does endorse and promote creative education efforts.

CHAT TIMES:
3:00pm           Sat 19th          Pacific Time
4:00pm           Sat 19th          Mountain Time
5:00pm           Sat 19th          Central Time
6:00pm           Sat 19th.         Eastern Time
10:00pm         Sat 19th          UK Time
11:00pm         Sat 19th          Madrid, Spain
8:00am           Sun 20th         Australian Eastern Standard Time
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