Tatjana Višak (born 12 December 1974), often credited as Tatjana Visak, is a German philosopher specialising in

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

and

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

who is currently based in the Department of Philosophy and Business Ethics at the

University of Mannheim The University of Mannheim (German: ''Universität Mannheim''), abbreviated UMA, is a public university, public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the ''Palatine Aca ...

. She is the author of the monographs ''Killing Happy Animals'' (2013,

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

) and ''Capacity for Welfare Across Species'' (2023,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

), and the editor, with the political theorist

Robert Garner Robert Garner is a British political scientist, political theorist, and intellectual historian. He is a Professor Emeritus in the politics department at the University of Leicester, where he has worked for much of his career. Before working at ...

, of ''The Ethics of Killing Animals'' (2016, Oxford University Press).

Career

Višak was born on 12 December 1974 in

Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students. Th ...

, West Germany. She was educated at the Theo-Koch Schule in Grünberg, and then the Institut Parisien, France, where she studied the French language and Philosophy and Art. She next studied at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, graduating in 2000 with a MSc in

Political Sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

(having focussed on

). She went on to work as a junior researcher/lecturer in the Ethics Institute at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

(spending some time as a researcher in the Ethics Department of the

Erasmus Medical Center Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC or EMC) is a teaching hospital based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, affiliated with Erasmus University and home to its faculty of medicine. It is the largest and one of the most authoritative scientific uni ...

Erasmus University Erasmus University Rotterdam ( ; abbreviated as EUR) is a public university, public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century Christia ...

) from 2000 to 2010. She read for a doctorate at Utrecht University, where she was supervised by Marcus Duwell and Marcellinus Verweij. Her PhD thesis was entitled ''Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics'', and was submitted in 2011. This formed the basis of her 2013 monograph ''Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics'', published with Palgrave Macmillan as part of The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series, edited by the

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Andrew Linzey and the philosopher Priscilla Cohn and published in conjunction with the

Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics The Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is an organisation based in Oxford which promotes animal ethics. History The centre was founded in Oxford in 2006 by Andrew Linzey, a member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of O ...

. The philosopher and

animal studies Animal studies is a recently recognised field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars who engage in animal studies may be formally trained in a number of diverse fields, including art history, anthropology ...

scholar Anna Peterson, reviewing the book for the ''Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics'', characterised ''Killing Happy Animals'' as "carefully argued, well-organized, and clearly written", but somewhat repetitive. Though she considered it worth reading, she felt that the book's scope was limited by Višak's focus on

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the ...

. After completing her PhD, Višak lectured in the Institute for Philosophy at

for a year, and became temporarily affiliated with the International School of Philosophy in the Netherlands. From 2011 to 2012, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University's Ethics Institute, and then, from 2012 to 2013, she worked as a lecturer at the

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Centre for Human Bioethics. From 2013 to 2015, she was a research fellow at

Saarland University Saarland University (, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major ...

, working with the philosophers Christoph Fehige and Ulla Wessels in Practical Philosophy. In 2013, she took up a research fellowship at the Department of Philosophy and Business Ethics at the

, working with Bernward Gesang. In 2016, ''The Ethics of Killing Animals'', a book coedited by Višak and the political theorist

, was published by

. The book contains essays from a variety of philosophers and other academics (including contributions from the editors) on the

axiological Value theory, also called ''axiology'', studies the nature, sources, and types of values. It is a branch of philosophy and an interdisciplinary field closely associated with social sciences such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychol ...

, moral and political issues surrounding the killing of nonhuman animals, with an afterword by

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...

. Reviewing ''The Ethics of Killing Animals'' in ''Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews'', the philosopher Jeff Sebo said he could "highly recommend this book for research as well as teaching", calling it "essential for people working on animal ethics". In 2018, Višak moved from Mannheim to the Department of International Political Theory and Philosophy at the

Goethe University of Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

, before moving to the Department of Philosophy and Economics at the

University of Bayreuth The University of Bayreuth (German: Universität Bayreuth) is a public research university located in Bayreuth, Germany. It is one of the youngest German universities. It is broadly organized into seven undergraduate and graduate faculties, with ...

. In 2019, she moved to the Department of Philosophy and Business Ethics at the

. Her monograph ''Capacity for Welfare Across Species'' was published by

in 2023.

Research

Višak is known for her exploration of the ethics of killing nonhuman animals who have lived happy lives, and specifically her rejection of the idea that it is acceptable to kill animals for agricultural purposes provided they have pleasant lives. She challenges

's idea that nonhuman animals are "replaceable", meaning that it is acceptable to kill nonhuman animals provided an equally happy animal is created to take their place. In her book ''Killing Happy Animals'', Višak explores this and the related logic of the larder—the idea that farming nonhuman animals benefits them, as they would not exist otherwise—from within utilitarianism. She suggests that the replaceability argument is based on Total View Utilitarianism, which entails that the utility of both actual and potential beings (the latter being individuals whose existence or non-existence depends upon the actions of others now). Instead, Višak suggests, utilitarians should adopt a Prior Existence View, entailing that only the utility of actual beings is taken into account in the judgement of the rightness or wrongness of an action. She rejects the logic of the larder by arguing that beings are not made better off by being brought into existence. Ultimately, then, utilitarianism is not restricted to the avoidance of suffering, and contains the tools to censure the routine killing of nonhuman animals, even in "animal friendly" agriculture.

Personal life

Višak is married with two children, who were born in 2004 and 2006. She is a native speaker of German and a German citizen, and is also fluent in English and Dutch, with conversational French.

Selected bibliography

Books *Višak, T. (2023). ''Capacity for Welfare Across Species''. Oxford: Oxford University Press *Višak, T. and R. Garner, eds., (2016) ''The Ethics of Killing Animals''. New York:

. *Višak, T. (2013). ''Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics''. New York:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Visak, Tatjana 1974 births Living people 21st-century German philosophers 21st-century German women Consequentialists German animal rights scholars German ethicists German political philosophers German women philosophers Leiden University alumni People from Giessen Utilitarians Utrecht University alumni Animal ethicists