Photo credit: Petrina Hicks, on www.petersinger.info.
On June 4-5, 2025, this interdisciplinary symposium will mark the publication of a new, definitive edition of the classic Animal Liberation.
Peter Singer's work broke new ground in animal ethics: its publication is often presented as a key moment in the emergence of the contemporary animalist movement. Its core utilitarian thesis remains powerful and relevant: if a being suffers, it is morally indefensible to ignore that suffering simply because the being is not human. The principle of equality requires that similar suffering be given equal moral weight, regardless of species.
This 2-day event will take place in 3 thematic sessions:
A critical examination of the key ideas from Animal Liberation, particularly the rejection of speciesism and the principle of equal consideration of interests.
- Historical and sociological perspectives on the animal advocacy movement: its origins, achievements, and future directions.
- Advances in scientific knowledge related to animal sentience (including mammals, fish, and invertebrates), behavioral economics, social psychology, the growth of both conventional and critical animal studies, methods for measuring interspecies welfare, and research on food choices and ethics.
Opening Lecture Livestream - Animal Liberation: To 50 and Beyond
The event will open with a keynote lecture by Peter Singer, titled “Animal Liberation: To 50 and Beyond”, on Thursday, June 4, 2025. The talk will be delivered in English and streamed live on the University of Rennes 2 YouTube channel.
In this address, Singer will reflect on five decades of thought and activism since the publication of his seminal work, and will look ahead to the future of these ideas—and the ethical challenges still facing the billions of nonhuman animals living under human control.
About Peter Singer
Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946. He recently retired from Princeton University (USA), where he spent 25 years as the Ira W. Decamp Professor of Bioethics. He has written numerous books, translated into some 30 languages, including Effective Altruism, Questions of Practical Ethics and, of course, Animal Liberation.
See the full program here
The conference is being organized in partnership with ANR, IUF, Région Bretagne, Rennes Métropole and the ACE research unit.
