Four leading philosophers​ ​explore ​one of the defining moral issue​s​ of our age in a discussion format created as an alternative to traditional debate. ​The philosophers will be divided into ​two ​teams​,​ and each team will be asked questions designed to make them think on their feet. But​, unlike in a traditional debate, ​the teams will not be assigned opposing positions on the moral status of animals. Instead, they will be welcome to say what they think is correct and agree or disagree with each other as much as they like. This ​new ​format allows a complicated and emotional topic to be discussed in a​ ​fun, productive, meaningful way. After the event, the​ ​conversation​ ​will continue​ ​over​ ​wine, beer, and snacks​.​

Alice Crary is Chair of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the author of Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought, a monograph on the representation of animals and humans in ethical discourse, and Beyond Moral Judgment. Elizabeth Harman is Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and Human Values at Princeton University. Her articles include “The Moral Significance of Animal Pain and Animal Death,” “Morally Permissible Moral Mistakes,” and “Does Moral Ignorance Exculpate?” Dale Jamieson is Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy and Chair of the Environmental Studies Department at New York University. His books include Reason in a Dark Time, Ethics and the Environment, and Morality’s Progress: Essays on Humans, Other Animals, and the Rest of Nature.​ Shelly Kagan is the Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University​ and the author of The Limits of Morality, Normative Ethics, and Death.