Aaron Simmons

Marywood University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

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My research is focused mainly in the areas of environmental ethics and bioethics. I am especially interested in questions about what kinds of entities are worthy of moral respect and the related issue of what kinds of entities are harmed by death.

I earned my B.A. from Oberlin College in 1998 with a double major in Philosophy and Environmental Studies. In 2006, I completed my Ph.D. in Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, a program that specializes in applied ethics. I wrote my dissertation on the topic of animal ethics, under the advisory of R.G. Frey, Tom Regan, and Dave Sobel.

Currently I am working on a book manuscript in which I develop a philosophical foundation for the basic moral rights of various animals. In particular I defend the idea that many animals possess basic rights to life, freedom, and bodily security. My argument addresses questions about the value of life for animals, including when compared to that of humans. I also justify attributions of phenomenal consciousness to a wide variety of animals and I aim to show how an animal rights ethic is compatible with a feminist ethics of care/empathy.

Along with this book project, I am also working on a few different papers defending the moral significance of empathy.

Two other research areas that interest me lately are (1) ancient theories of ethics and happiness (especially Aristotle, Epicureanism, and Stoicism) and (2) the philosophy of death and dying, including issues such as life-extension and immortality, the relationship between the meaning of life and death, and the rationality of suicide.

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Kathie Jenni

University of Redlands

Salisbury University

York University

Aarhus University

Aarhus University

Kimberley Parzuchowski

University of Oregon

Fredrik Svenaeus

Södertörn University

Antti Kauppinen

University of Helsinki

Marco Inchingolo

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Papers by Aaron Simmons

In Defense of the Moral Significance of Empathy

It is commonly suggested that empathy is a morally important trait to possess. This suggestion a... more It is commonly suggested that empathy is a morally important trait to possess. This suggestion assumes that empathy involves feeling concern for others’ welfare. Skeptics challenge the moral importance of empathy by arguing that empathy is neither necessary nor sufficient to feel concern for others’ welfare. This challenge is misguided. Although not all forms of empathy are morally important, empathy in its fullest form with others' concerns for their basic welfare is both necessary and sufficient to care for others' welfare. Empathy in its fullest form includes both the cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy. I further contend that empathy of this form is a moral virtue. It is essential to being an ethical person, it is useful for promoting ethical behavior, and it possesses other traits essential to virtues, such as motivating one to aim for the moral good and disposing one to do virtuous things whenever appropriate opportunities arise.

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Do Embryos Have Interests? Why Embryos Are Identical to Future Persons But Not Harmed by Death

One possible reason to oppose stem cell research on human embryos lies in the thought that death ... more One possible reason to oppose stem cell research on human embryos lies in the thought that death harms embryos by depriving them of their valuable future lives as adult humans. Some have challenged this argument on the grounds that embryos aren’t identical to adults: either due to the potential for embryos to twin or because we do not exist until the fetus develops consciousness. I show that these arguments fail and that embryos have future adult lives. However, I contend that their future lives don't have value for them (and therefore that they can't be harmed by death) since they are incapable of having desires. I illuminate the connection between having interests and having desires in a way that other authors have not.

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Do Animals Have an Interest in Continued Life? In Defense of a Desire-Based Approach

Do we harm animals if we painlessly kill them? The idea that animals are harmed by death faces th... more Do we harm animals if we painlessly kill them? The idea that animals are harmed by death faces the challenge that animals lack self-awareness and, therefore, are incapable of valuing their own continued lives. Some people object that death harms animals because it forecloses their future opportunities for pleasure. However, this argument is problematic because it's unclear why animals' future opportunities have value for them if they are incapable of caring about them. A more promising argument holds that many animals have an interest in life insofar as they have certain ongoing enjoyments in life, where animals' enjoyments are best understood not merely as fleeting experiences but rather as dispositional desires that animals continue to have over time.

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Animals, Predators, the Right to Life, and the Duty to Save Lives

Ethics & The Environment, Jan 1, 2009

One challenge to the idea that animals have a moral right to life claims that any such right woul... more One challenge to the idea that animals have a moral right to life claims that any such right would require us to intervene in the wild to prevent animals from being killed by predators. I argue that belief in an animal right to life does not commit us to supporting a program of predator-prey intervention. One common retort to the predator challenge contends that we are not required to save animals from predators because predators are not moral agents. This retort fails to overcome the predator challenge. I aim to articulate a more satisfactory argument explaining why we are not required to save wild prey from predators even if animals have a basic right to life.

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Two Arguments against Biological Interests

According to biocentrism, all living organisms have interests in the fulfillment of their biologi... more According to biocentrism, all living organisms have interests in the fulfillment of their biological functions and, therefore, they are deserving of moral respect. I suggest there are two reasons why we ought to reject the idea of biological interests. First, it implies a metaphysically mysterious account of interests. Second, it implies that what is good for humans is partly determined by things external to themselves, independent of their capacities for desires. This conflicts with the ideal of self-direction, according to which it is desirable that how we ought to live is grounded in one's own capacity for desires. It is still an open possibility, however, that nonsentient life forms are morally considerable in the sense of having intrinsic value.

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A Critique of Mary Anne Warren's Weak Animal Rights View

In her book, Moral Status, Mary Anne Warren defends a comprehensive theory of the moral status of... more In her book, Moral Status, Mary Anne Warren defends a comprehensive theory of the moral status of various entities. Under this theory, she argues that animals may have some moral rights but that their rights are much weaker in strength than the rights of humans, who have rights in the fullest, strongest sense. Subsequently, Warren believes that our duties to animals are far weaker than our duties to other humans. This weakness is especially evident from the fact that Warren believes that it is frequently permissible for humans to kill animals for food. Warren’s argument for her view consists primarily in the belief that we have inevitable practical conflicts with animals that make it impossible to grant them equal rights without sacrificing basic human interests. However, her arguments fail to justify her conclusions. In particular, Warren fails to justify her beliefs that animals do not have an equal right to life and that it is permissible for humans to kill animals for food.

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In Defense of the Moral Significance of Empathy

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Do Embryos Have Interests? Why Embryos Are Identical to Future Persons But Not Harmed by Death

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Do Animals Have an Interest in Continued Life? In Defense of a Desire-Based Approach

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Animals, Predators, the Right to Life, and the Duty to Save Lives

Ethics & The Environment, Jan 1, 2009

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Two Arguments against Biological Interests

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A Critique of Mary Anne Warren's Weak Animal Rights View

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Aaron Simmons

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