Steve Frederic Sapontzis (born February 9, 1945) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at

California State University, East Bay California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 pos ...

who specializes in

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, ani ...

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 ...

and

meta-ethics In metaphilosophy and ethics, meta-ethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought ...

Life and work

Sapontzis was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the son of Zissis Peter and Lea Marie Vial Sapontzis. He obtained his BA from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

in 1967, his MPhil in 1970, and PhD from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1971. He joined the philosophy faculty at California State University, East Bay in 1971, and became professor emeritus in 1999. Sapontzis was co-founder in 1985 of the journal '' Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics'' and served as its initial co-editor''.Stockwell, John (1985).
Editorial
. ''Between the Species'' 1 (1): 1–2.'' He was a member of the board of the ''

American Philosophical Quarterly The ''American Philosophical Quarterly'' (APQ) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering philosophy. It was established in 1964 by Nicholas Rescher and is published quarterly by University of Illinois Press under license with North American Phil ...

'' (1991–1994), and sat on the animal welfare research committee at

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...

(1986–1990). In 1983, Sapontzis founded, with his wife, the Hayward Friends of Animals Humane society. They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in the Need, in California. Sapontzis was also one of the first members of the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals. Sapontzis authored '' Morals, Reason, and Animals'', in 1987, ''Subjective Morals'', in 2011, and edited ''Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat''; published in 2004.

Selected publications

Books

*''Morals, Reason, and Animals''. Temple University Press, 1987. *(ed.) ''Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat''. Prometheus Books, 2004. *''Subjective Morals''. University Press of America, 2011.

Papers

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Interview
with Claudette Vaughan
30 years since the publication of Morals, reason and animals
–

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, ani ...