Kristin Andrews
Professor
York Research Chair in Animal Minds
Office: Ross Building, S420
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 77590
Email: andrewsk@yorku.ca
Primary website: https://kristinandrews.org/
Secondary website: https://kristinandrews.org/
Attached CV
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Kristin Andrews is York Research Chair in Philosophy of Animal Minds, Professor of Philosophy, and member of the Cognitive Science program.
Kristin Andrews is York Research Chair in Animal Minds and Professor of Philosophy at York University, CIFAR fellow in the Future Flourishing program, and was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada. She works on questions related to animal consciousness and animal culture, and the impacts these have on conceptions of human nature. Andrews’s books include Do Apes Read Minds? Toward a New Folk Psychology (MIT 2012); The Animal Mind (Routledge 2020, second edition ) – a survey of how empirical work on animal minds can help to inform debates in the philosophy of mind; and, written with a team of 15 philosophers, Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers Brief (Routledge 2018); The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Animal Minds (editor with Jacob Beck, Routledge 2018); How to Study Animal Minds (Cambridge 2020). She is currently writing a trade book on animal cultures for Norton. Andrews has published her theoretical work in numerous journals including Science, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Reviews, Current BIology, The Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Mind and Language, Synthese, Biology and Philosophy, and Southern Journal of Philosophy. Her scientific research on orangutan pantomime communication is published in Biology Letters and Communicative and Integrative Biology. Andrews is Director of The Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Society, and President-elect of the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology. In addition to her academic duties, she serves as a member of the Executive Board for The Borneo Orangutan Society Canada, which has the mission to promote conservation of orangutans and their habitat and to educate the public.
Degrees
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Minnesota, 2000M.A., Philosophy, Western Michigan University, 1995
B.A., Philosophy, Antioch College, 1992
Professional Leadership
-Co-organizer, The New York Declaration of Animal Consciousness, 2024
-Co-creator and Director, The Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association, 2022
-Organizer, Toronto area Animal Cognition Discussion Group, 2006-present
Community Contributions
-Support for Nonhuman Rights Project, amicus brief co-author supporting personhood for chimpanzees and elephants.
-Board of Directors, Borneo Orangutan Society, Canada 2008-present.
Research Interests
- President-Elect, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology - 2024
- Visiting International Professor, Situation Cognition Fellow, Ruhr-Universität Bochum - 2022-2025
- Visiting Professor, Department of Law, Università Degli Studi di Cagliari - 2023
- Visiting Professor, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, The London School of Economics - 2021-2022
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for Normative Animals” - 2022
- York Research Chair in the Philosophy of Animal Minds, Tier 1 - 2022
- Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. - 2015
- Canadian Philosophical Association Biennial Book Prize for Do Apes Read Minds: Toward a New Folk Psychology - 2013
- Western Michigan University Distinguished Alumni Award - 2011
- Visiting Fellow, Center for Agency, Value, and Ethics. Macquarie University - 2015
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for “Animals and Moral Practice” funded at $97,312 - 2016
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for “Animals and Philosophy of Mind” funded at $93,723 - 2013
- Social Sciences and Humanities Standard Research Grant recipient for the project “Understanding Folk Psychologies” funded at $49,863.00 - 2005
- York Research Chair in the Philosophy of Animal Minds, York University - 2017
- CIFAR fellow Future Flourising - 2023
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Investigating social norms in nonhuman animal cultures.
SSHRC
-
Summary:
An examination of the nature of normative cognition and the evolution of moral cognition across species.
Description:Moral practice is universal among human cultures, and it isn't uncommon to hear that morality is one thing that makes humans unique on this planet. However, recent scientific research and philosophical investigation have introduced the issue of whether nonhuman animals participate in a moral life as well. My project, "Animals and Moral Practice," will respond to this challenge by examining the diversity of moral practice among human cultures and over human development in order to determine if, and how, different animal species share elements of a moral life with humans. By examining the extent to which other animals may participate in a moral practice, we can gain a better understanding of both human uniqueness and our connection with other animals.
This project will contribute to and advance the current debate in three distinct areas of thought. First, it will pursue a careful analysis of both field and captive research on some nonhuman animal species. I will be focusing on great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos), but I also plan to include some discussion of monkeys, cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and elephants, as these species plausibly participate in moral life. I will use my background in the methodology of animal cognition research to investigate carefully claims about social structure, practices, and social norms in great apes and other species. Moving beyond examining a single species, this more comprehensive project will address the evolution of morality across a number of species.
Second, this project will expand the notion of moral practice away from the standard approaches in conversations about animal ethics. Defences of the idea that animals may be participants in a moral community focus on morality as empathy or sympathy. Arguments against this idea focus on the inability of animals to govern themselves by thinking through principles. Moral psychologists and anthropologists, however, are finding that human morality is richer than just autonomy and empathy/sympathy, and my project promises to bring this richness to bear in animal ethics. Moreover, standard approaches have not considered non-western ethical traditions or moral psychology, so I will innovate by encompassing them in my work.
Third, I will respond to philosophical debates about the nature of normativity. Moral practice requires some sense that things ought to be a certain way, and so normativity is a necessary condition for any moral practice. However, it is often thought not to be sufficient. I will interrogate the idea that there is any clear distinction that can be drawn between the moral and the conventional.
The research findings of this project, which will be made public through a book, articles, and postings on a blog "Animal are Us" will be valuable to philosophers of mind, ethicists, and animal cognition researchers, as well as to activists outside of the academic community. My work will assist philosophers in grounding their theories in empirical data by highlighting the diversity of cognitive capacities among species. Ethicists will find that, unlike previous approaches, this project brings together (a) animal research, (b) cross-cultural studies, (c) nonwestern philosophy, and (d) leading philosophical debates about the nature of normativity in order to take seriously the diverse dimensions of morality that we find among human cultures. For animal cognition researchers, my treatment of moral practices will be useful for framing research questions and experimental methodologies. Finally, my findings will be relevant for activists working to end chimpanzee medical testing, seeking legal personhood for some nonhuman animals, or reforming government policy to protect the environments and communities of wild animals.
Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M. John, L. Syd M Johnson, Robert C. Jones, Will Kymlica, Letitia Meynell, Nathan Nobis, David M. Peña-Guzmán, Jeff Sebo, Routledge 2018.
eds., Routledge, 2017.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | GS/PHIL6850 6.0 | A | PhD Research Seminar | SEMR |
Kristin Andrews is York Research Chair in Philosophy of Animal Minds, Professor of Philosophy, and member of the Cognitive Science program.
Kristin Andrews is York Research Chair in Animal Minds and Professor of Philosophy at York University, CIFAR fellow in the Future Flourishing program, and was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada. She works on questions related to animal consciousness and animal culture, and the impacts these have on conceptions of human nature. Andrews’s books include Do Apes Read Minds? Toward a New Folk Psychology (MIT 2012); The Animal Mind (Routledge 2020, second edition ) – a survey of how empirical work on animal minds can help to inform debates in the philosophy of mind; and, written with a team of 15 philosophers, Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers Brief (Routledge 2018); The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Animal Minds (editor with Jacob Beck, Routledge 2018); How to Study Animal Minds (Cambridge 2020). She is currently writing a trade book on animal cultures for Norton. Andrews has published her theoretical work in numerous journals including Science, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Reviews, Current BIology, The Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Mind and Language, Synthese, Biology and Philosophy, and Southern Journal of Philosophy. Her scientific research on orangutan pantomime communication is published in Biology Letters and Communicative and Integrative Biology. Andrews is Director of The Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Society, and President-elect of the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology. In addition to her academic duties, she serves as a member of the Executive Board for The Borneo Orangutan Society Canada, which has the mission to promote conservation of orangutans and their habitat and to educate the public.
Degrees
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Minnesota, 2000M.A., Philosophy, Western Michigan University, 1995
B.A., Philosophy, Antioch College, 1992
Professional Leadership
-Co-organizer, The New York Declaration of Animal Consciousness, 2024
-Co-creator and Director, The Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association, 2022
-Organizer, Toronto area Animal Cognition Discussion Group, 2006-present
Community Contributions
-Support for Nonhuman Rights Project, amicus brief co-author supporting personhood for chimpanzees and elephants.
-Board of Directors, Borneo Orangutan Society, Canada 2008-present.
Research Interests
Awards
- President-Elect, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology - 2024
- Visiting International Professor, Situation Cognition Fellow, Ruhr-Universität Bochum - 2022-2025
- Visiting Professor, Department of Law, Università Degli Studi di Cagliari - 2023
- Visiting Professor, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, The London School of Economics - 2021-2022
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for Normative Animals” - 2022
- York Research Chair in the Philosophy of Animal Minds, Tier 1 - 2022
- Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. - 2015
- Canadian Philosophical Association Biennial Book Prize for Do Apes Read Minds: Toward a New Folk Psychology - 2013
- Western Michigan University Distinguished Alumni Award - 2011
- Visiting Fellow, Center for Agency, Value, and Ethics. Macquarie University - 2015
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for “Animals and Moral Practice” funded at $97,312 - 2016
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant for “Animals and Philosophy of Mind” funded at $93,723 - 2013
- Social Sciences and Humanities Standard Research Grant recipient for the project “Understanding Folk Psychologies” funded at $49,863.00 - 2005
- York Research Chair in the Philosophy of Animal Minds, York University - 2017
- CIFAR fellow Future Flourising - 2023
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Investigating social norms in nonhuman animal cultures.
Project Type: FundedFunders:
SSHRC
-
Summary:
An examination of the nature of normative cognition and the evolution of moral cognition across species.
Description:Moral practice is universal among human cultures, and it isn't uncommon to hear that morality is one thing that makes humans unique on this planet. However, recent scientific research and philosophical investigation have introduced the issue of whether nonhuman animals participate in a moral life as well. My project, "Animals and Moral Practice," will respond to this challenge by examining the diversity of moral practice among human cultures and over human development in order to determine if, and how, different animal species share elements of a moral life with humans. By examining the extent to which other animals may participate in a moral practice, we can gain a better understanding of both human uniqueness and our connection with other animals.
This project will contribute to and advance the current debate in three distinct areas of thought. First, it will pursue a careful analysis of both field and captive research on some nonhuman animal species. I will be focusing on great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos), but I also plan to include some discussion of monkeys, cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and elephants, as these species plausibly participate in moral life. I will use my background in the methodology of animal cognition research to investigate carefully claims about social structure, practices, and social norms in great apes and other species. Moving beyond examining a single species, this more comprehensive project will address the evolution of morality across a number of species.
Second, this project will expand the notion of moral practice away from the standard approaches in conversations about animal ethics. Defences of the idea that animals may be participants in a moral community focus on morality as empathy or sympathy. Arguments against this idea focus on the inability of animals to govern themselves by thinking through principles. Moral psychologists and anthropologists, however, are finding that human morality is richer than just autonomy and empathy/sympathy, and my project promises to bring this richness to bear in animal ethics. Moreover, standard approaches have not considered non-western ethical traditions or moral psychology, so I will innovate by encompassing them in my work.
Third, I will respond to philosophical debates about the nature of normativity. Moral practice requires some sense that things ought to be a certain way, and so normativity is a necessary condition for any moral practice. However, it is often thought not to be sufficient. I will interrogate the idea that there is any clear distinction that can be drawn between the moral and the conventional.
The research findings of this project, which will be made public through a book, articles, and postings on a blog "Animal are Us" will be valuable to philosophers of mind, ethicists, and animal cognition researchers, as well as to activists outside of the academic community. My work will assist philosophers in grounding their theories in empirical data by highlighting the diversity of cognitive capacities among species. Ethicists will find that, unlike previous approaches, this project brings together (a) animal research, (b) cross-cultural studies, (c) nonwestern philosophy, and (d) leading philosophical debates about the nature of normativity in order to take seriously the diverse dimensions of morality that we find among human cultures. For animal cognition researchers, my treatment of moral practices will be useful for framing research questions and experimental methodologies. Finally, my findings will be relevant for activists working to end chimpanzee medical testing, seeking legal personhood for some nonhuman animals, or reforming government policy to protect the environments and communities of wild animals.
Project Type: FundedRole: PI
All Publications
Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M. John, L. Syd M Johnson, Robert C. Jones, Will Kymlica, Letitia Meynell, Nathan Nobis, David M. Peña-Guzmán, Jeff Sebo, Routledge 2018.
eds., Routledge, 2017.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | GS/PHIL6850 6.0 | A | PhD Research Seminar | SEMR |
