Skip to main content Skip to local navigation

Normative Animals - Online Conference

Normative Animals - Online Conference

June 17-18, 2021 9:00am - 5:00pm EST

Organizers: Kristin Andrews, Simon Fitzpatrick, and Evan Westra

Register here

What are the psychological and evolutionary foundations of moral and social norms? Are these normative capacities uniquely human, or are they also present in other species? How might the presence of normativity in nonhuman animals change our ethical obligations towards them?

This two-day online conference will bring together an international group of philosophers, primatologists, and psychologists investigating the cognitive foundations of culture, morality, and social norms from a comparative, evolutionary perspective. We envision this as a first step in building a network of researchers to plan and carry out an interdisciplinary program of research looking into the scope and limits of normative cognition and practice in other species.

Would you like to give a talk at the conference? Submit a 300-word abstract to ewestra@yorku.ca by May 15, 2021