Jeff Sebo
Biographic Data
| ID | 4631768 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeff Sebo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeff |
| FAMILY NAME | Sebo |
| SIGNATURE | SEBO J |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8997-3217 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Edge of the Moral Circle
This essay explores the relationship between two recent books on the scope of moral consideration: “The Edge of Sentience” (Birch 2024a) and “The Moral Circle” (Sebo 2025). Both books address the ethical and scientific challenge of determining how to interact with beings of uncertain sentience and moral status. They also argue for similar conclusions: they develop precautionary frameworks for guiding these decisions, and they argue that many inve…
Ethical Oversight for Insect Research
In this article, we present a high-level argument for ethical oversight for insect research. There is a realistic possibility that insects are sentient, and when there is a realistic possibility that an animal is sentient, we have a responsibility to consider welfare risks for them when making decisions that affect them. We also present high-level recommendations for how to achieve this goal. In addition to taking the issue seriously in general, …
Why aquatic animals matter for food justice
Is there a tension between AI safety and AI welfare
The field of AI safety considers whether and how AI development can be safe and beneficial for humans and other animals, and the field of AI welfare considers whether and how AI development can be safe and beneficial for AI systems. There is a prima facie tension between these projects, since some measures in AI safety, if deployed against humans and other animals, would raise questions about the ethics of constraint, deception, surveillance, alt…
Overlapping minds and the hedonic calculus
It may soon be possible for neurotechnology to connect two subjects' brains such that they share a single token mental state, such as a feeling of pleasure or displeasure. How will our moral frameworks have to adapt to accommodate this prospect? And if this sort of mental-state-sharing might already obtain in some cases, how should this possibility impact our moral thinking? This question turns out to be extremely challenging, because different e…
How Should Treatment of Animals Beyond the Lab Factor Into Institutional Review
Discussions of nonhuman research ethics tend to focus on what we owe nonhuman research subjects in laboratory settings only. But humans make critical decisions about these animals outside the lab, too, during breeding, transportation, and end-of-study protocols. This article reviews extra-lab risks and harms to nonhuman research subjects, focusing on the most commonly and intensively used animals like rodents and fishes, and argues that extra-lab…
Kantianism for humans, utilitarianism for nonhumans? Yes and no
How Should We Improve How Medical and Veterinary Students Learn About Human and Nonhuman Animals
This article presents 5 general points that every clinician should know about animals, health, and the environment, focusing on why animals matter for their own sakes, why animals matter for health and environmental threats, why health and environmental threats matter for animals, and how the medical and veterinary industries interact with animals. This article then offers practical advice about how to address these issues
Intersubstrate Welfare Comparisons
In the future, when we compare the welfare of a being of one substrate (say, a human) with the welfare of another (say, an artificial intelligence system), we will be making an intersubstrate welfare comparison. In this paper, we argue that intersubstrate welfare comparisons are important, difficult, and potentially tractable. The world might soon contain a vast number of sentient or otherwise significant beings of different substrates, and moral…
Human, Nonhuman, and Chimeric Research
Human‐nonhuman chimeric research—research on nonhuman animals who contain human cells—is being used to understand human disease and development and to create potential human treatments such as transplantable organs. A proposed advantage of chimeric models is that they can approximate human biology and therefore allow scientists to learn about and improve human health without risking harms to humans. Among the emerging ethical issues being explore…
Clarifying the Ethics and Oversight of Chimeric Research
This article is the lead piece in a special report that presents the results of a bioethical investigation into chimeric research, which involves the insertion of human cells into nonhuman animals and nonhuman animal embryos, including into their brains. Rapid scientific developments in this field may advance knowledge and could lead to new therapies for humans. They also reveal the conceptual, ethical, and procedural limitations of existing ethi…
Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves
In 2020, COVID-19, the Australia bushfires, and other global threats served as vivid reminders that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. Human use of nonhuman animals is contributing to pandemics, climate change, and other global threats. And these global threats are, in turn, contributing to biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and nonhuman suffering. In this book, Jeff Sebo argues that humans have a moral responsibility to includ…
What Should We Agree on about the Repugnant Conclusion
The Repugnant Conclusion is an implication of some approaches to population ethics. It states, in Derek Parfit's original formulation, For any possible population of at least ten billion people, all with a very high quality of life, there must be some much larger imaginable population whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better, even though its members have lives that are barely worth living. (Parfit 1984: 388)
Consequentialism and Nonhuman Animals
Consequentialism is thought to be in significant conflict with animal rights theory because it does not regard activities such as confinement, killing, and exploitation as in principle morally wrong. Proponents of the “Logic of the Larder” argue that consequentialism results in an implausibly pro-exploitation stance, permitting us to eat farmed animals with positive well-being to ensure future such animals exist. Proponents of the “Logic of the L…
Can Knowledge Itself Justify Harmful Research
In our paper, we argue for three necessary conditions for morally permissible animal research: (1) an assertion (or expectation) of sufficient net benefit, (2) a worthwhile-life condition, and (3) a no-unnecessary-harm/qualified-basic-needs condition. 1 We argue that these conditions are necessary, without taking a position on whether they are jointly sufficient. In their excellent commentary on our paper, Matthias Eggel, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Her…
Chimpanzee Rights
Since 2013, an organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project has brought before the New York State courts an unusual request—asking for habeas corpus hearings to determine whether Kiko and Tommy, two captive chimpanzees, should be considered legal persons with the fundamental right to bodily liberty. While the courts have agreed that chimpanzees share emotional, behavioural, and cognitive similarities with humans, they have denied that chimpanz…
Food, Animals, and the Environment
Food, Animals, and the Environment: An Ethical Approach examines some of the main impacts that agriculture has on humans, nonhumans, and the environment, as well as some of the main questions that these impacts raise for the ethics of food production, consumption, and activism. Agriculture is having a lasting effect on this planet. Some forms of agriculture are especially harmful. For example, industrial animal agriculture kills 100+ billion anim…
Utilitarianism, Multiplicity and Liberalism
I argue that utilitarianism requires us to tolerate intrapersonal disagreement for the same reasons that it requires us to tolerate interpersonal disagreement. I begin by arguing that multiplicity has the same costs and benefits as multiculturalism: It causes conflict, but it also allows us to perform experiments in living, adopt a division of labour, compartmentalize harm and learn from ourselves. I then argue that, in light of these costs and b…
The Just Soul
Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves
In 2020, COVID-19, the Australia bushfires, and other global threats served as vivid reminders that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. Human use of nonhuman animals is contributing to pandemics, climate change, and other global threats. And these global threats are, in turn, contributing to biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and nonhuman suffering. In this book, Jeff Sebo argues that humans have a moral responsibility to includ…
What Should We Agree on about the Repugnant Conclusion
The Repugnant Conclusion is an implication of some approaches to population ethics. It states, in Derek Parfit's original formulation, For any possible population of at least ten billion people, all with a very high quality of life, there must be some much larger imaginable population whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better, even though its members have lives that are barely worth living. (Parfit 1984: 388)
Intersubstrate Welfare Comparisons
In the future, when we compare the welfare of a being of one substrate (say, a human) with the welfare of another (say, an artificial intelligence system), we will be making an intersubstrate welfare comparison. In this paper, we argue that intersubstrate welfare comparisons are important, difficult, and potentially tractable. The world might soon contain a vast number of sentient or otherwise significant beings of different substrates, and moral…
The Just Soul
Utilitarianism, Multiplicity and Liberalism
I argue that utilitarianism requires us to tolerate intrapersonal disagreement for the same reasons that it requires us to tolerate interpersonal disagreement. I begin by arguing that multiplicity has the same costs and benefits as multiculturalism: It causes conflict, but it also allows us to perform experiments in living, adopt a division of labour, compartmentalize harm and learn from ourselves. I then argue that, in light of these costs and b…
Chimpanzee Rights
Since 2013, an organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project has brought before the New York State courts an unusual request—asking for habeas corpus hearings to determine whether Kiko and Tommy, two captive chimpanzees, should be considered legal persons with the fundamental right to bodily liberty. While the courts have agreed that chimpanzees share emotional, behavioural, and cognitive similarities with humans, they have denied that chimpanz…
Food, Animals, and the Environment
Food, Animals, and the Environment: An Ethical Approach examines some of the main impacts that agriculture has on humans, nonhumans, and the environment, as well as some of the main questions that these impacts raise for the ethics of food production, consumption, and activism. Agriculture is having a lasting effect on this planet. Some forms of agriculture are especially harmful. For example, industrial animal agriculture kills 100+ billion anim…
Consequentialism and Nonhuman Animals
Consequentialism is thought to be in significant conflict with animal rights theory because it does not regard activities such as confinement, killing, and exploitation as in principle morally wrong. Proponents of the “Logic of the Larder” argue that consequentialism results in an implausibly pro-exploitation stance, permitting us to eat farmed animals with positive well-being to ensure future such animals exist. Proponents of the “Logic of the L…
Can Knowledge Itself Justify Harmful Research
In our paper, we argue for three necessary conditions for morally permissible animal research: (1) an assertion (or expectation) of sufficient net benefit, (2) a worthwhile-life condition, and (3) a no-unnecessary-harm/qualified-basic-needs condition. 1 We argue that these conditions are necessary, without taking a position on whether they are jointly sufficient. In their excellent commentary on our paper, Matthias Eggel, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Her…
What Should We Agree on about the Repugnant Conclusion
The Repugnant Conclusion is an implication of some approaches to population ethics. It states, in Derek Parfit's original formulation, For any possible population of at least ten billion people, all with a very high quality of life, there must be some much larger imaginable population whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better, even though its members have lives that are barely worth living. (Parfit 1984: 388)
Human, Nonhuman, and Chimeric Research
Human‐nonhuman chimeric research—research on nonhuman animals who contain human cells—is being used to understand human disease and development and to create potential human treatments such as transplantable organs. A proposed advantage of chimeric models is that they can approximate human biology and therefore allow scientists to learn about and improve human health without risking harms to humans. Among the emerging ethical issues being explore…
Clarifying the Ethics and Oversight of Chimeric Research
This article is the lead piece in a special report that presents the results of a bioethical investigation into chimeric research, which involves the insertion of human cells into nonhuman animals and nonhuman animal embryos, including into their brains. Rapid scientific developments in this field may advance knowledge and could lead to new therapies for humans. They also reveal the conceptual, ethical, and procedural limitations of existing ethi…
Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves
In 2020, COVID-19, the Australia bushfires, and other global threats served as vivid reminders that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. Human use of nonhuman animals is contributing to pandemics, climate change, and other global threats. And these global threats are, in turn, contributing to biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and nonhuman suffering. In this book, Jeff Sebo argues that humans have a moral responsibility to includ…
Kantianism for humans, utilitarianism for nonhumans? Yes and no
How Should We Improve How Medical and Veterinary Students Learn About Human and Nonhuman Animals
This article presents 5 general points that every clinician should know about animals, health, and the environment, focusing on why animals matter for their own sakes, why animals matter for health and environmental threats, why health and environmental threats matter for animals, and how the medical and veterinary industries interact with animals. This article then offers practical advice about how to address these issues
Intersubstrate Welfare Comparisons
In the future, when we compare the welfare of a being of one substrate (say, a human) with the welfare of another (say, an artificial intelligence system), we will be making an intersubstrate welfare comparison. In this paper, we argue that intersubstrate welfare comparisons are important, difficult, and potentially tractable. The world might soon contain a vast number of sentient or otherwise significant beings of different substrates, and moral…
Overlapping minds and the hedonic calculus
It may soon be possible for neurotechnology to connect two subjects' brains such that they share a single token mental state, such as a feeling of pleasure or displeasure. How will our moral frameworks have to adapt to accommodate this prospect? And if this sort of mental-state-sharing might already obtain in some cases, how should this possibility impact our moral thinking? This question turns out to be extremely challenging, because different e…
How Should Treatment of Animals Beyond the Lab Factor Into Institutional Review
Discussions of nonhuman research ethics tend to focus on what we owe nonhuman research subjects in laboratory settings only. But humans make critical decisions about these animals outside the lab, too, during breeding, transportation, and end-of-study protocols. This article reviews extra-lab risks and harms to nonhuman research subjects, focusing on the most commonly and intensively used animals like rodents and fishes, and argues that extra-lab…
The Edge of the Moral Circle
This essay explores the relationship between two recent books on the scope of moral consideration: “The Edge of Sentience” (Birch 2024a) and “The Moral Circle” (Sebo 2025). Both books address the ethical and scientific challenge of determining how to interact with beings of uncertain sentience and moral status. They also argue for similar conclusions: they develop precautionary frameworks for guiding these decisions, and they argue that many inve…
Ethical Oversight for Insect Research
In this article, we present a high-level argument for ethical oversight for insect research. There is a realistic possibility that insects are sentient, and when there is a realistic possibility that an animal is sentient, we have a responsibility to consider welfare risks for them when making decisions that affect them. We also present high-level recommendations for how to achieve this goal. In addition to taking the issue seriously in general, …
Why aquatic animals matter for food justice
Is there a tension between AI safety and AI welfare
The field of AI safety considers whether and how AI development can be safe and beneficial for humans and other animals, and the field of AI welfare considers whether and how AI development can be safe and beneficial for AI systems. There is a prima facie tension between these projects, since some measures in AI safety, if deployed against humans and other animals, would raise questions about the ethics of constraint, deception, surveillance, alt…
Philosophy (10 works) · Economics (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Animal testing and alternatives (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Law and economics (4 works)