Two MA students present at the GRÉEA’s early career scholars workshop

Two MA students in Philosophy, Brandon Eggleston and Maddie Youngman, presented papers at the early career scholars workshop of the Groupe de recherche en éthique environnementale et animale (GRÉEA) affiliated with the Centre de recherche en éthique (CRÉ) in Montreal. The workshop, held over Zoom on September 22-23, provided a venue for graduate students and early career scholars who work on issues related to environmental and animal ethics to disseminate their research. You can read the abstracts of Brandon’s and Maddie’s presentations below.

Brandon Eggleston, “An Examination of Speciesist Biases Implicit in Aesthetic Experiences Involving Animal Suffering”

"I primarily address Ned Hettinger’s analysis of aesthetic experiences involved in witnessing animal predation, where he argues that predation can be considered to have positive aesthetic value overall when one considers the beautiful traits of the predator and prey, the fact that the death of the prey allows the predator to live, and even that the negative emotion evoked by witnessing the prey suffer during this necessary event can add tragically beautiful depth to the experience. Instead of disputing Hettinger’s account, I instead argue that the way we experience animal predation as described by him is only fully possible due to speciesist biases implicit in our understanding of and relationship to non-human entities. I champion Anne Eaton’s conception of ethicism, whereby our ethical preconceptions and standpoints may limit how fully we can aesthetically appreciate an experience. I will point to these biases and argue that they are speciesist in nature, following Josephine Donovan’s examination of speciesism underlying literary depictions of animal suffering. I suggest that because of our anthropocentric preconceptions and ways of conceptualizing and valuing, we are able to appreciate scenes of animal predation in the holistically positive aesthetic manner as described by Hettinger in a way that would not be possible if we were to witness similar situations involving human death or suffering. I conclude by suggesting that as our ethical frameworks and ways of relating to non-human animals shift due to an increase in public sentiment towards the unique experiences of animals (e.g. through veganism movements), our ability to aesthetically appreciate animal predation in an aesthetically positive way will be diminished."

Maddie Youngman, “An Approach to Environmental Conservation through the Indigenization of an Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature”

"In this paper, I will provide a notion of aesthetic experience that is supported by an interpretation of multiple Indigenous perspectives that suggests that the aesthetic experience of nature is a performance, only activated by a mutual relationship between the engager and nature. I will argue that this approach reveals the contrast between aesthetic appreciation and ethical environmental conservation of nature from the western-colonial perspective in both regards. I will rely on the works of Indigenous authors and scholars Brian Burkhart, Kyle Whyte, and Ted Jojola to suggest that nature ought to be seen as a subject, a community member, rather than an object at our disposal. I suggest that, when we entertain the Indigenous perspectives on kinship with nature, there is something about the western perspective on nature and land that has tainted how we approach what defines an aesthetic response to nature, and thus how we treat the environment, and its preservation. Further, I argue that if the primary approach to an aesthetic appreciation of nature is rooted in the westernized thought of objectification, destruction, or the abuse of the land, without reciprocation or respect for it as another being we are in relation with, there cannot be genuine and authentic aesthetic appreciation. Lastly, I determine that based on either our aesthetic appreciation, personal social or monetary gain, westerners, through artificial and detached dynamics about nature enacted by colonization, make ethical decisions about the land that directly conflict with treating nature with the respect and reciprocity that it deserves."