Steve F. Sapontzis | |
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| Born | Steven Frederic Sapontzis (1945-02-09)February 9, 1945 (age 80) New York City,New York, U.S. |
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| Education |
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| Thesis | Merleau-Ponty and Philosophical Methodology (1971) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Institutions | California State University, East Bay |
| Main interests | |
| Notable works | Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987) |
| Website | stevesapontzis.com |
Steven Frederic Sapontzis (born February 9, 1945) is an Americanmoral philosopher. He isprofessor emeritus of philosophy atCalifornia State University, East Bay and specializes inanimal ethics,environmental ethics andmeta-ethics. His best known work isMorals, Reason, and Animals, published in 1987. Sapontzis' philosophy advocates for extending moralpersonhood and ethical consideration to animals based on their capacity for interests and suffering, challenginganthropocentric norms andspeciesism, and instead promoting empathy,vegan activism, and systemic change to reduceanimal exploitation.
Steven Frederic Sapontzis[1] was born inNew York City, the son of Zissis Peter and Lea Marie Vial Sapontzis on February 9, 1945.[2]
Sapontzis obtained hisBA fromRice University in 1967. He then studied at theUniversity of Paris from 1967 to 1978, before enrolling atYale University where he earned hisMPhil in 1970, andPhD.[3] His thesis is entitledMerleau-Ponty and Philosophical Methodology.[4]
Sapontzis joined the philosophy faculty atCalifornia State University, East Bay, in 1971, becomingprofessor emeritus on his retirement in 1999.[3]
Sapontzis was co-founder, in 1985, of the journalBetween the Species: A Journal of Ethics and served as its initial co-editor.[5] He was a member of the board of theAmerican Philosophical Quarterly (1991–1994), and sat on theanimal welfare research committee atLawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1986–1990).[6] Sapontzis was also one of the first members of the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals.[2]
Sapontzis has published numerous academic papers.[7] He has also authored two books.Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987) examines issues related to speciesism and the moral consideration of nonhuman animals, and has been described in retrospect as a notable and original work of its time.[8] His second book,Subjective Morals, published in 2011, critically examines the foundations, benefits, and harms ofmoral values, challenging traditional moral philosophy and proposing ways to balance their positive and negative impacts.[9] He additionally edited the volumeFood for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat (2004).[10]
In 1983, Sapontzis and his future wife established Hayward Friends of Animals, to create a volunteer initiative supporting their local municipalanimal shelter.[11] He married Jeanne Marie Gocker on December 25, 1992.[2] They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in the Need, an initiative aimed at providing assistance to financially disadvantaged individuals caring for companion animals in California.[11]
Sapontzis criticises traditionalanthropocentric ethics and argues that animals should be included within the moral community on the basis of their capacity for interests and suffering. He maintains that moral personhood ought not to be restricted to humans but should extend to any being capable of having interests, a view that, in his account, includes many nonhuman animals. Sapontzis distinguishes betweenmetaphysical personhood, which he associates with being human, and moral personhood, which he associates with capacities such as rationality, choice and the possession of interests. On this basis, he argues for an ethical standpoint that does not treatspeciesism as a legitimate boundary for moral concern.[6]
Sapontzis also critiques practices such ashumane slaughter, contending that the large-scale killing of animals for food involves suffering and the loss of potentially valuable future experiences, even when physical pain at the time of killing is reduced. He argues that genuinely humane treatment would require recognising animals' interests and refraining from treating them solely as resources. In his view, this critique extends to social norms that place human preferences above the interests of animals and reveals tensions within prevailing ethical attitudes to animal use.[6]
For Sapontzis, animal liberation requires not only legal reforms but also changes in human attitudes toward animals. He sees the cultivation of empathy and moral reflection as important for reducing the exploitation of animals. In this context he assigns a central role tovegan activism and education, which he regards as helping to draw attention to the suffering of animals and to encourage changes in behaviour. At the same time, he describes the difficulties of achieving far-reaching change and stresses the importance of incremental measures, such as higher welfare standards and reduced meat consumption, as steps towards broader ethical reform.[6]
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