Mylan Engel Jr. (born 1960) is a full professor of philosophy at
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...
in
DeKalb DeKalb or De Kalb may refer to:
People
* Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), major general in the American Revolutionary War
Places Municipalities in the United States
* DeKalb, Illinois, the largest city in the United States named DeKalb
**DeKal ...
.
Biography
Born in Alabama and educated at
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
and the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
, he was hired by Northern Illinois University in 1988. Engel has also served as Guest Professor at the
University of Innsbruck
The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
(1999) and
University of Maribor
The University of Maribor ( sl, Univerza v Mariboru) is Slovenia's second-largest university, established in 1975 in Maribor, Slovenia. It currently has 17 faculties.
History
The university's roots reach back to 1859, when a theological semin ...
,
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
(1999–2002).
Engel's specialties are
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Epis ...
,
philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
, Scottish philosopher
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...
,
animal ethics
Animal ethics is a branch of ethics which examines human-animal relationships, the moral consideration of animals and how nonhuman animals ought to be treated. The subject matter includes animal rights, animal welfare, animal law, speciesism, an ...
, and
environmental ethics
In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...
.
Engel is a "moral vegetarian" (
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
)—the belief that we are morally obligated to refrain from eating meat—and has argued that virtually all humans hold beliefs that, if consistently applied, would make them moral vegetarians as well. Engel has contributed to the study of
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...
and edited the volume ''The Moral Rights of Animals'' with Gary Lynn Comstock in 2016.
In his spare time, Engel practices
karate. He also offered a beginners course for students at Northern Illinois University.
Professor Engel has been Executive Secretary of The
Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals since September, 2002.
Selected publications
"Fishy Reasoning and the Ethics of Eating" ''Between the Species'': Vol. 23: Iss. 1, Article 3.
*"The Moral Rights of Animals". Lexington Books, 2016.
"Vegetarianism" In ''The Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics'', edited by Henk ten Have. Dordrecht: Springer 2016.
*"Tierethik, Tierrechte und moralische Integrität"
Interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgemeinschaft Tierethik(Hrsg.).
Tierrechte - Eine interdisziplinäre Herausforderung'. Erlangen 2007.
"The Immorality of Eating Meat" Louis P. Pojman (Hrsg.). ''The Moral Life''. New York/Oxford 2000.
*"Internalism, the Gettier Problem, and Metaepistemological Skepticism", ''
Grazer Philosophische Studien
''Grazer Philosophische Studien/International Journal for Analytic Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy published by Rodopi Publishers. It was established in 1975 by Rudolf Haller and is currently Editor-in-chief, edited ...
'' 60 (2000).
*"The Possibility of Maximal Greatness Examined: A Critique of Plantinga's Modal Ontological Argument", ''
Acta Analytica'' 19 (1997).
*"Coarsening Brand on Events, While Proliferating Davidsonian Events", ''Grazer Philosophische Studien'' 47 (1994).
*"The Problem of Other Minds: A Reliable Solution", ''Acta Analytica'' 11 (1993).
*"Is Epistemic Luck Compatible with Knowledge?", ''
Southern Journal of Philosophy'' XXX 2 (1992).
*"Personal and Doxastic Justification in Epistemology", ''
Philosophical Studies
''Philosophical Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal for philosophy in the analytic tradition. The journal is devoted to the publication of papers in exclusively analytic philosophy and welcomes papers applying formal techniques to philo ...
'' 67 (1992).
*"Russellizing Russell: A Reply to His 'A Critique of Lehrer's Coherentism'", ''Philosophical Studies'' 66 (1992).
*"Inconsistency: The Coherence Theorist's Nemesis", ''Grazer Philosophische Studien'' 40 (1991).
*"Coherentism Reliabilized", ''Acta Analytica'' (1986).
See also
*
American philosophy
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
{, border="0" style="margin:auto;" class="toccolours"
, -
! {{MediaWiki:Toc
, -
, style="text-al ...
References
External links
Mylan Engel Jr."Video of his lecture "Do Animals Have Rights, and Does It Matter if They Don't?" at the Interdisciplinary Lectures on Animal Rights at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg on the 7th of June 2006"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Mylan
1960 births
American animal rights scholars
Animal ethicists
Bioethicists
Living people
Northern Illinois University faculty
Philosophers from Alabama
Philosophers from Arizona
University of Arizona alumni
University of Maribor faculty
Vanderbilt University alumni
American veganism activists