About humans and other animals (event from the Knowledge and Dialogue series)

We are at a point where it is becoming increasingly clear that we can no longer treat the world, the environment, and other animals as inexhaustible resources, existing only for our benefit. In addition, it is important to emphasize that the assumption (which has occupied a very long place in the discourse on the natural world) that animals are without rights, as well as the illusion that the way we choose to treat them is devoid of moral significance, are examples of the arrogance of Western culture, which considered cruelty and barbarity to belong only to foreigners.

Thus, we are witnessing today a convergence of new ethical arguments and economic arguments based on the long-term interest of humanity. It is increasingly evident that humans and ecosystems, animals and the non-human world are in a web of interdependence. Today we are aware that we share the world with a multitude of other forms of life whose complexity we are only beginning to truly understand.

For this reason, the study of animals and nature, which was considered the province of biology, has found its place in the fields of psychology, educational sciences, sociology, anthropology, philosophy of culture, ethics and other related fields, and through this we have come to discover a multitude of new ideas and to redefine and reconsider a multitude of fundamental concepts. The way we theorize about animals and the non-human world is of crucial importance for the way we relate and relate to them.

The debate to which we invite you wants to bring these topics to the attention of the general public and to popularize the new field of anthrozoology, the study of the human-animal relationship.

This debate opens the “Knowledge and Dialogue” series, meetings whose primary goal is to popularize science and transfer knowledge through academic dialogues between researchers from the Romanian Academy – Iași Branch and guests, experts in their fields, from universities, other institutes, the economic and social environment, with the participation and involvement of the widest possible audience.