S6E1: Politics with Will Kymlicka

Claudia launches Season 6 by talking to Will Kymlicka about politics. They discuss how animals remain largely sidelined in political philosophical thought, as compared to other areas of ethics and social theory. Will delves into three different models for how to bring animals into politics: politics “on behalf of” animals, where humans represent animals; politics “by” animals, where wild animals exercise self-government; and politics “with” animals, where humans and animals do politics together and co-author decisions. As examples of joint politics, they discuss recent efforts to share power with domesticated animals in farmed animal sanctuaries, in the family and in the workplace.

Date Recorded: 30 September 2023. 

Will Kymlicka is the Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, where he has taught since 1998. He is the co-author with Sue Donaldson of Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights, published by Oxford University Press in 2011, and now translated into German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, and Polish. Zoopolis argues that animals belong at the heart of democratic political theory - defending rights of citizenship for domesticated animals and sovereignty rights for wild animals – and its ideas have helped launch the recent `political turn’ in animal ethics. Will and Sue have continued developing their model of a zoopolis, and its implications for animal advocacy, legal reform, and alliances with other social justice movements. Their recent work has appeared in Politics and Animals; The Philosophy and Politics of Animal Liberation;  Journal of Animal Ethics; Canadian Perspectives on Animals and the Law; the Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies. Will co-directs the Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics research group at Queen’s University, including its postdoctoral fellowship program, and teaches courses in animals and political theory and in animals and the law. 

Featured: 

• Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rightsby Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka
• Doing Politics with Animals by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, forthcoming in Social Research
• Locating animals in political philosophy by Will Kymlicka and Sue Donaldson 

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:36 The Animal Question in Moral and Political Philosophy
• 10:34 Morals vs. Politics?
• 14:23 Legitimate Authority: Three Models
• 22:50 Urban Animals and Iterative Politics
• 26:25 Levels of Politics By Animals: Communities and Commons
• 32:33 Politics and Society
• 37:45 Wolves, Dominance, and Social Biology
• 39:50 Membership in Families and Workplaces
• 46:00 Exit Options and Interspecies Sociability
• 52:00 Members of Society
• 58:28 Quote (Blue and Rock)
• 1:07:00 What are you working on now?
• 1:08:41 Animal Highlight: Domesticated Dogs
• 1:20:48 Credits