Dr Patrizia Setola

“I am currently a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow. After degrees in general and experimental psychology, cognitive science, and applied animal behaviour and welfare science, I obtained a PhD in animal ethics from UCD School of Philosophy, with a dissertation entitled ‘Ethical Encounters with Sentient Others'. I have taught courses in animal ethics, and in my current IRC-funded project, titled 'The Value of Sentience', I am furthering my research in my areas of interests, including moral philosophy, moral psychology, and animal cognition. In my next research project, I intend to explore the possibility of moral progress in our relations with nonhuman animals and the natural environment. I will address both conceptual and practical questions, considering what would constitute moral progress in this context, and which conditions would help bring it about, at the individual as well as the socio-political level.”