Nico Müller
🐾 Animal rights | 🐭 Animal experimentation ethics | ☝️ Kantian ethics | 📚 I post about books I'm reading & engage in shameless self-promotion
Philosopher at University of Basel🇨🇭| orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-8235
- 🚨 New paper out today 🚨 The message is simple: As we replace some animal experiments with alternatives, new animal experiments are also being innovated. If our policy goal is inflicting less harm on animals in science, replacement won’t be enough. We also need a shift in model innovation. 🐭📉
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- Had a good time at yesterday's Swiss Animal Protection meeting! 👍 I talked about why I think phase-out planning for animal experimentation is a good idea, if it's done well. 🐭📉 It was also great to meet Love Hansell again. Check out his work, if you haven't yet: doi.org/10.25453/pla...
- 📣❗New article out now! rdcu.be/eSSNa I explain how to do "nonideal animal research ethics" – it involves spelling out ethical goals first, then mapping ethical pathways to get there. I think we should do this more often because…
- …it helps to take big-picture questions about animal research ethics into view: Not "is this-or-that animal study justified here and now?" but "what, if anything, should institutions do to make science more animal-friendly over time?"
- Reposted by Nico MüllerOn the latest episode of Knowing Animals, I speak to Doris Schneeberger about her 2024 Palgrave book Envisioning a Better Future for Nonhuman Animals: Towards Future Animal Rights Declarations. The episode is available free below or in all the usual places. knowinganimals.libsyn.com/episode-243-...
- 🥳 I'll post the paper when it's out!
- It's pretty encouraging to read this in Nature! 🐭📉 I'd just add that (a) NAMs shouldn't be reduced to mere "alternatives" to animal models (just like chickpeas aren't just meat replacements); (b) bottom-up acceptance of NAMs is part of the solution, but some top-down strategy is needed too.
- Surprising no one, the 🇨🇭 Federal Council today recommended rejecting yet another popular initiative aiming to ban #AnimalExperimentation. 🐭🧪❌ In my view, these initiatives foster the wrong kind of discussion – a crude Pro vs Con. What we need is a debate about the How of moving forward.
- In this new paper, Pandora Pound draws on Bourdieu to analyze #AnimalResearch in terms of fields, habitus, and different kinds of capital. Worth a read!
- I just found out that Taylor Swift's cat has her own wikipedia page. Apparently she's the world's second-richest cat, worth an estimated US$97 million. She's also a Scottish Fold, a breed so unhealthy it's banned in some countries, yet it's popular because people like TS promote it. 👎👎👎
- Not gonna lie, this ego boost came at just the right time. It's nice to see some people actually read what I write… and like it! Here's that paper for free: doi.org/10.1007/s107... Now I'll go respond to peer reviewers for another paper that were *not* so thrilled about my work. Wish me luck…
- Animals constantly give off information – what if there was a disease that forced humans to listen and understand? People would love it, if this book has it right. And society might collapse. A really, really fun read! #BookSky #AnimalRights
- 📉🐭 New numbers out today: 🇨🇭 reports the lowest annual use of animals in #AnimalExperimentation since records began in 1983. A fortunate development for sure, but there's no guarantee it'll continue. Thoughts in 🧵
- A missed opportunity: The 🇨🇭 Council of States just voted *not* to pursue a parliamentary initiative for a phase-out plan for animal experiments. This means the bill is off the table. But there's always next time…! 🐭📉
- Having a great time at the European Animal Rights Law Conference – that's me there in the picture! 😎 I talked about phase-out planning for research that harms animals: Why it's not just the #3Rs, why it's different from a ban, and how politically promising the demand is. Great discussion too!
- Reposted by Nico MüllerMy paper ‘Animal Rights, Moral Motivation, and the Experience of Wonder’ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... has just been published at @the-joap.bsky.social In it, I argue for fostering a sense of wonder at individual nonhuman animals, & for making this the basis of a reverence-based respect.
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- Looking forward to discussing phase-out strategies for animal experimentation at this conference in September! 📉🐭
- 🚨 NEW OA ARTICLE 🚨 In many countries, animal experimentation overall isn't decreasing or becoming less severe. Some argue that overall numbers are misleading – that they don't tell us anything about whether we're making progress in alternatives. I argue this is isn't totally wrong, just mostly.
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