My doctoral research covers the issue of the use of violence to defend nonhuman animals, and achieve what ethicists and activists call ‘animal liberation’ or the ‘abolition of institutionalized animal exploitation’. Put differently, I aim to discuss the central arguments presented to support (or to deny) the view that is morally justifiable to intervene (violently if necessary) to protect members of other species from human actions. In order to provide a philosophically rigorous framework to canvass the claim that nonhumans should be liberated it is imperative to understand to what extent they can be harmed by the practices often regarded as exploitative. This said, the first part of my PhD thesis focuses on what interests nonhumans have, and how strong those interests are when compared to the corresponding human interests. Such comparative assessment sets both the background of my thesis and a substantial basis to investigate further what obligations moral agents have to other sentient beings. In exploring that topic, I require an account of the moral status of nonhuman animals. A key part of the account in question is what I call a hybrid interest-based approach to rights. It is a hybrid approach in the sense that it combines the conception of rights as protections of individuals’ interests and the idea of a sentience-centered dignity. In short, in my doctoral research I seek to put together two hot fields of philosophical inquiry, namely animal ethics and the ethics of war and self-defense.
I can be contacted by email or via my academia.edu. For a complete list of my publications, please see my CV.