Cass Sunstein: belief

Transcript context

…Canada, the whole world. There’s a new book out called The Arrogant Ape by Christine Webb, which I greatly admire. It’s about nonhuman animals and about human exceptionalism. It’s an extremely powerful book. She’s not a philosopher; she knows a lot of philosophy. There are closing chapters on indigenous people and their attitude toward nonhuman animals. I’ve learned from it, and I find it an opening into thinking of, let’s say, an expansive form of liberalism. I worry that in some hands, the words “indigenous peoples” are surrounded by celestial music, and there’s a sentimentalizing, but in this book, at least, there’s a conception of the relationship between nature and persons that is interesting — nature meaning the whole thing, including living creatures. Will Kymlicka has done some interesting work on this. Speaking of liberals who aren’t always in the canon, I think Kymlicka is very good. Why is it so hard to blend those two topics? Certainly, on the political right, you see almost nothing. Maybe there’s some amount of scorn for the issue, but not much that’s serious on the left. You mentioned some things, but you’re a bit halting as well. Why is that?…

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