ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1554-7052
Current Organisation
University of Southampton
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-01-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S11098-022-01907-1
Abstract: One of the biggest problems in applications of animal welfare science is our ability to make comparisons between different in iduals, both within and across species. Although welfare science provides methods for measuring the welfare of in idual animals, there’s no established method for comparing measures between in iduals. In this paper I diagnose this problem as one of underdetermination—there are multiple conclusions given the data, arising from two sources of variation that we cannot distinguish: variation in the underlying target variable (welfare experience) and in the relationship of measured indicators to the target. I then describe some of the possible methods of making comparisons, based on the use of similarity assumptions that will have greater or lesser justification in different circumstances, and the alternative methods we may use when direct comparisons are not possible. In the end, all our available options for making welfare comparisons are imperfect, and we need to make explicit context-specific decisions about which will be best for the task at hand while acknowledging their potential limitations. Future developments in our understanding of the biology of sentience will help strengthen our methods of making comparisons.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-11-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-10-2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X21002211
Abstract: Dubourg and Baumard mention a potential role for the human drive to systemise as a factor motivating interest in imaginary worlds. Given that hyperexpression of this trait has been linked with autism (Baron-Cohen, 2002, 2006), we think this raises interesting implications for how those on the autism spectrum may differ from the neurotypical population in their engagement with imaginary worlds.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-05-2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-12-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-10-2021
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 17-04-2021
DOI: 10.3390/ANI11041148
Abstract: The keeping of captive animals in zoos and aquariums has long been controversial. Many take freedom to be a crucial part of animal welfare and, on these grounds, criticise all forms of animal captivity as harmful to animal welfare, regardless of their provisions. Here, we analyse what it might mean for freedom to matter to welfare, distinguishing between the role of freedom as an intrinsic good, valued for its own sake and an instrumental good, its value arising from the increased ability to provide other important resources. Too often, this debate is conducted through trading intuitions about what matters for animals. We argue for the need for the collection of comparative welfare data about wild and captive animals in order to settle the issue. Discovering more about the links between freedom and animal welfare will then allow for more empirically informed ethical decisions regarding captive animals.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-11-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S13194-020-00322-9
Abstract: Animal welfare has a long history of disregard. While in recent decades the study of animal welfare has become a scientific discipline of its own, the difficulty of measuring animal welfare can still be vastly underestimated. There are three primary theories, or perspectives, on animal welfare - biological functioning, natural living and affective state. These come with their own erse methods of measurement, each providing a limited perspective on an aspect of welfare. This paper describes a perspectival pluralist account of animal welfare, in which all three theoretical perspectives and their multiple measures are necessary to understand this complex phenomenon and provide a full picture of animal welfare. This in turn will offer us a better understanding of perspectivism and pluralism itself.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-03-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S41649-023-00244-7
Abstract: While animal sentience research has flourished in the last decade, scepticism about our ability to accurately measure animal feelings has unfortunately remained fairly common. Here, we argue that evolutionary considerations about the functions of feelings will give us more reason for optimism and outline a method for how this might be achieved.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2018
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 17-02-2023
DOI: 10.1017/PSA.2023.10
Abstract: Measurement of subjective animal welfare creates a special problem in validating the measurement indicators used. Validation is required to ensure indicators are measuring the intended target state, and not some other object. While indicators can usually be validated by looking for correlation between target and indicator under controlled manipulations, this is not possible when the target state is not directly accessible. In this article, I outline a four-step approach using the concept of robustness that can help with validating indicators of subjective animal welfare.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/AWF.2023.33
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10539-022-09862-1
Abstract: There are many decision contexts in which we require accurate information on animal welfare, in ethics, management, and policy. Unfortunately, many of the methods currently used for estimating animal welfare in these contexts are subjective and unreliable, and thus unlikely to be accurate. In this paper, I look at how we might apply principled methods from animal welfare science to arrive at more accurate scores, which will then help us in making the best decisions for animals. I construct and apply a framework of desiderata for welfare measures, to assess the best of the currently available methods and argue that a combined use of both a whole-animal measure and a combination measurement framework for assessing welfare will give us the most accurate answers to guide our action.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22001923
Abstract: In order to address why the number of patients suffering from anxiety and depression are seemingly exploding in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries, it is sensible to look at the evolution of human fearfulness responses. Here, we draw on Veit's pathological complexity framework to advance Grossmann's goal of re-characterizing human fearfulness as an adaptive trait.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-10-2022
DOI: 10.1111/PHC3.12878
Publisher: WellBeing International Publications
Date: 2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-09-2020
DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2019.1672552
Abstract: The performance of natural behavior is commonly used as a criterion in the determination of animal welfare. This is still true, despite many authors having demonstrated that it is not a necessary component of welfare - some natural behaviors may decrease welfare, while some unnatural behaviors increase it. Here I analyze why this idea persists, and what effects it may have. I argue that the disagreement underlying this debate on natural behavior is not one about which conditions affect welfare, but a deeper conceptual disagreement about what the state of welfare actually consists of. Those advocating natural behavior typically take a "teleological" view of welfare, in which naturalness is fundamental to welfare, while opponents to the criterion usually take a "subjective" welfare concept, in which welfare consists of the subjective experience of life by the animal. I argue that as natural functioning is neither necessary nor sufficient for understanding welfare, we should move away from the natural behavior criterion to an alternative such as behavioral preferences or enjoyment. This will have effects in the way we understand and measure welfare, and particularly in how we provide for the welfare of animals in a captive setting.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-07-2016
Abstract: Opportunistic infections have been reported infrequently in primary HIV infection. We report a case of cryptococcemia in primary HIV infection. To our knowledge there has not been such a case reported. Our case highlights the need for clinicians to be wary of other opportunistic infections, including cryptococcosis, in primary HIV infection.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22000498
Abstract: Benenson et al. provide a compelling case for treating greater investment into self-protection among females as an adaptive strategy. Here, we wish to expand their proposed adaptive explanation by placing it squarely in modern state-based and behavioural life-history theory, drawing on Veit's pathological complexity framework. This allows us to make sense of alternative “lifestyle” strategies, rather than pathologizing them.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2023
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22000115
Abstract: There has been much criticism of the idea that Friston's free-energy principle can unite the life and mind sciences. Here, we argue that perhaps the greatest problem for the totalizing ambitions of its proponents is a failure to recognize the importance of evolutionary dynamics and to provide a convincing adaptive story relating free-energy minimization to organismal fitness.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X2200070X
Abstract: Heintz & Scott-Phillips provide a useful synthesis for constructing a bridge between work by both cognitive scientists and evolutionary biologists studying the ersity of human communication. Here, we aim to strengthen their bridge from the side of evolutionary biology, to argue that we can best understand ostensive communication as a scaffold for more complex forms of intentional expressions.
Publisher: Imprint Academic Ltd
Date: 31-03-2022
DOI: 10.53765/20512201.29.3.150
Abstract: One of the most challenging questions surrounding subjective animal welfare is whether these states are measurable: that is, is subjective welfare an appropriately quantifiable target for scientific enquiry and ethical and deliberative calculation? The availability of several different types of measurement scale raises important questions regarding whether subjective experience has the right properties to be meaningfully represented on the types of scale required for different applications. This methodological question has so far received scant attention in the animal welfare literature. In this paper, I address this omission by examining the types of measurement scale we can reasonably expect to apply to animal welfare measurements, and which we will actually need for our applications. I argue that our different applications will require variously ordinal, interval, and ratio scales, and that we have sufficient reason to believe that subjective welfare is a target with the appropriate characteristics to justify the practice of representing it using each of these types of scales.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-12-2020
Publisher: F1000 Research Ltd
Date: 03-05-2023
DOI: 10.12688/MOLPSYCHOL.17523.1
Abstract: One of the most urgent challenges arising in bioethics has been the ethical assessment of the use of brain organoids, largely because of the possibility of sentience and the potential that if they can feel, then they might suffer. But while there is a growing literature on the possibility of sentience in brain organoids and why we should take a precautionary approach towards them, there is very little guidance on what it would mean to protect their welfare. In this paper, we address this omission by exploring the question of what the welfare of an organoid might be like, and how we could scientifically assess this question. As we will show, these are difficult questions to answer, given the current lack of empirical data on many of the important features of brain organoids, but we will provide some principled empirically-informed speculation on possible answers, as well as suggestions for future research directions.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 28-02-2023
DOI: 10.3389/FVETS.2023.1060720
Abstract: While global aquaculture is rapidly expanding, there remains little attention given to the assessment of animal welfare within aquacultural systems. It is crucial that animal welfare concerns are central in the development and implementation of aquaculture as if they are not prioritized early on, it becomes much more difficult to adapt in future. To this end, it is important to ensure the availability of high-quality welfare assessment schemes to evaluate the welfare of animals in aquaculture and promote and maintain high welfare standards. This paper will first discuss some of the current certification and assessment frameworks, highlighting the primary limitations that need to be addressed, before going on to describe the recommendations for a best-practice welfare assessment process for aquaculture with the hope that these considerations can be taken on board and used to help improve welfare assessment for aquaculture and, ultimately, to ensure animals used in aquaculture have a higher level of welfare. Any aquacultural system should be assessed according to a suitable framework in order to be considered adequate for the welfare of the animals it contains, and thus to maintain social license to operate.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 05-05-2020
DOI: 10.3390/ANI10050799
Abstract: One of the biggest ethical issues in animal agriculture is that of the welfare of animals at the end of their lives, during the process of slaughter. Much work in animal welfare science is focussed on finding humane ways to transport and slaughter animals, to minimise the harm done during this process. In this paper, we take a philosophical look at what it means to perform slaughter humanely, beyond simply reducing pain and suffering during the slaughter process. In particular, we will examine the issue of the harms of deprivation inflicted in ending life prematurely, as well as shape of life concerns and the ethical implications of inflicting these harms at the end of life, without the potential for future offsetting through positive experiences. We will argue that though these considerations may mean that no slaughter is in a deep sense truly ‘humane’, this should not undermine the importance of further research and development to ensure that while the practice continues, animal welfare harms are minimised as far as possible.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-07-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22001595
Abstract: Why is it that people simultaneously treat social robots as mere designed artefacts, yet show willingness to interact with them as if they were real agents? Here, we argue that Dennett's distinction between the intentional stance and the design stance can help us to resolve this puzzle, allowing us to further our understanding of social robots as interactive depictions.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-03-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S10539-023-09901-5
Abstract: With increasing attention given to wild animal welfare and ethics, it has become common to depict animals in the wild as existing in a state dominated by suffering. This assumption is now taken on board by many and frames much of the current discussion but needs a more critical assessment, both theoretically and empirically. In this paper, we challenge the primary lines of evidence employed in support of wild animal suffering, to provide an alternative picture in which wild animals may often have lives that are far more positive than is commonly assumed. Nevertheless, while it is useful to have an alternative model to challenge unexamined assumptions, our real emphasis in this paper is the need for the development of effective methods for applying animal welfare science in the wild, including new means of data collection, the ability to determine the extent and scope of welfare challenges and opportunities, and their effects on welfare. Until such methods are developed, discussions of wild animal welfare cannot go beyond trading of intuitions, which as we show here can just as easily go in either direction.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-05-2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
Publisher: Imprint Academic Ltd
Date: 31-03-2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22001273
Abstract: In this commentary we advance Jagiello et al.'s proposal by zooming in on the possible evolutionary origins of the “bifocal stance” that may have enabled a major transition in human cultural evolution, arguing that the evolution of the bifocal stance was driven by an explosion in cultural complexity arising from cooperative foraging, which led to a feedback loop between the ritual and instrumental stances.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2021
DOI: 10.1007/S10539-021-09781-7
Abstract: In this essay, we discuss Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul from an interdisciplinary perspective. Constituting perhaps the longest treatise on the evolution of consciousness, Ginsburg and Jablonka unite their expertise in neuroscience and biology to develop a beautifully Darwinian account of the dawning of subjective experience. Though it would be impossible to cover all its content in a short book review, here we provide a critical evaluation of their two key ideas—the role of Unlimited Associative Learning in the evolution of, and detection of, consciousness and a metaphysical claim about consciousness as a mode of being—in a manner that will hopefully overcome some of the initial resistance of potential readers to tackle a book of this length.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2020
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-12-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-03-2022
DOI: 10.1111/PHC3.12822
Abstract: ‘Sentience’ sometimes refers to the capacity for any type of subjective experience, and sometimes to the capacity to have subjective experiences with a positive or negative valence, such as pain or pleasure. We review recent controversies regarding sentience in fish and invertebrates and consider the deep methodological challenge posed by these cases. We then present two ways of responding to the challenge. In a policy‐making context, precautionary thinking can help us treat animals appropriately despite continuing uncertainty about their sentience. In a scientific context, we can draw inspiration from the science of human consciousness to disentangle conscious and unconscious perception (especially vision) in animals. Developing better ways to disentangle conscious and unconscious affect is a key priority for future research.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-11-2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-12-2021
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Heather Browning.