Jessica Pierce

Jessica Pierce
Born	(1965-10-21) October 21, 1965 (age 59)[1]
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Virginia
Main interests	Bioethics, environmental studies, animal studies, animal ethics, environmental ethics
Website	jessicapierce.net

Jessica Pierce (born October 21, 1965) is an American bioethicist, philosopher, and writer. She currently has a loose affiliation with the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Denver, but is mostly independent, focussing on writing. Early in her career, her research primarily addressed ethical questions about healthcare and the environment. Since the 2000s, however, much of her work has focused on animal ethics. She has published twelve books, including multiple collaborations with the ecologist Marc Bekoff.

Career

Pierce completed her Bachelor of Arts at Scripps College, before studying for a Master of Divinity at Divinity School of Harvard University. She then received a PhD in religious studies (specialising in religious ethics) at the University of Virginia.^[2][3] In the late 1980s, Pierce became a "major advocate" of environmental sustainability in healthcare, epitomising (in the words of the philosopher Cristina Richie) a "'second generation' of environmental bioethicists", after a first generation epitomised by Van Rensselaer Potter.^[4]

In 1993, Pierce briefly worked as an assistant professor in the Randolph-Macon Women's College Department of Religion. From 1993 to 2000, she was an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the Humanities and Law section of the Department of Preventive and Societal Medicine.^[2] Her first book, Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business, co-written with R. Edward Freeman and Richard H. Dodd, was published in 2000.^[5]

Pierce was a visiting fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law from 1999 to 2000, and then, from 2001 to 2006, she lectured at the University of Colorado Boulder, working in departments focused respectively on philosophy, religious studies and environmental studies.^[2] The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care, which Pierce cowrote with Andrew Jameton, was published in 2004,^[6] and Pierce's case book Morality Play followed in 2005.^[7]

After leaving Boulder in 2006, Pierce became affiliated with the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Denver (later the Anschutz Medical Campus).^[2][8] However, this connection is a loose one; she no longer teaches, and considers herself an "independent entity", focusing on writing instead of the administration and bureaucracy of university work.^[9] She published Contemporary Bioethics, a reader co-edited with George Randals, in 2009.^[10]

Having previously focused her research on human health, including her early research interests in the connections between health and the environment, Pierce began to focus her research on animals in the 2000s.^[3] She co-authored Wild Justice with the ecologist and ethologist Marc Bekoff in 2010,^[11] and two sole-authored books followed: The Last Walk in 2012^[12] and Run, Spot, Run in 2016.^[13] She subsequently collaborated with Bekoff on 2007's The Animals' Agenda,^[14] which was published the same year as Pierce's second collection, Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals, co-edited with Amir Shanan and Tamara Shearer.^[15] Again writing with Bekoff, she published Unleashing Your Dog in 2019^[16] and A Dog's World in 2021.^[17] Her sole-authored monograph Who's a Good Dog? followed in 2023.^[18]

Philosophy

In Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business, Freeman, Dodd, and Pierce argue that businesses should lead on environmental issues rather than merely meeting state-mandated standards.^[5] In The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care, Pierce and Jameton explore the environmental impact of the health sector.^[6]

Bekoff and Pierce argue in Wild Justice that animals display evidence of consciousness, cooperation, empathy, justice, and morality.^[11] In The Animals' Agenda, Pierce's second book with Bekoff, the authors argue that the science of animal welfare should be replaced by a science of animal well-being.^[14] In Unleashing Your Dog they argue that people who live with dogs need to become adept at seeing the world from dogs' point of view to give their dogs a good life.^[16] In A Dog's World, the authors challenge assumptions about dogs by offering an extended thought experiment of a world in which dogs live without humans.^[17]

The Last Walk explores the ethics of companion animal death.^[9][12] Run, Spot, Run explores the ethical ambiguity of pet ownership in general,^[13] while Who's a Good Dog? looks at the ethics of dog-human relationships.^[18]

Selected bibliography

Marc Bekoff (pictured 2018), with whom Pierce has coauthored several books

Pierce has authored or co-authored over 50 articles in peer reviewed journals and chapters in scholarly edited collections.^[19]

• Freeman, R. Edward, Jessica Pierce and Richard H. Dodd (2000). Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business: How Firms Can be Profitable and Leave Our Children a Living Planet. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Pierce, Jessica, and Andrew Jameton (2004). The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Pierce, Jessica (2005). Morality Play: Case Studies in Ethics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Second edition published by Waveland Press in 2013.
• Pierce, Jessica and George Randels, eds. (2009). Contemporary Bioethics: A Reader with Cases. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Bekoff, Marc, and Jessica Pierce (2010). Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Pierce, Jessica (2012). The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Pierce, Jessica (2016). Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Bekoff, Marc, and Jessica Pierce (2017). The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Shanan, Amir, Tamara Shearer, and Jessica Pierce, eds. (2017). Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals: Principles and Practice. Hoboken: Wiley.
• Bekoff, Marc, and Jessica Pierce (2019). Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible. Novato, California: New World Library.
• Pierce, Jessica, and Marc Bekoff (2021). A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Pierce, Jessica (2023). Who's a Good Dog? And How to Be a Better Human. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

References

1. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb16245635p
2. Pierce, Jessica. "Curriculum vitae". Archived from the original on 22 July 2020.
3. Pierce, Jessica. "Welcome!". Archived from the original on 14 September 2016.
4. Richie, Cristina (2014). "A Brief History of Environmental Bioethics". Virtual Mentor. 16 (9): 749–52. doi:10.1001/virtualmentor.2014.16.9.mhst2-1409. PMID 25216316.
5. Discussions:
   • "Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business". Kirkus Reviews. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
   • Starik, Mark (2001). "Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business: How Firms Can Be Profitable and Leave Our Children a Living Planet". Organization & Environment. 14 (2): 248–51. ProQuest 219906859.
6. Discussions:
   • Schettler, Ted (2004). "Review of The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care, by J. Pierce & A. Jameton". Environmental Health Perspectives. 112 (8): A508. JSTOR 3435868.
   • Carrick, Paul (2005). "The Hidden Costs of Environmentally Responsible Health Care". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 48 (3): 453–8. doi:10.1353/pbm.2005.0070. PMID 16089022. S2CID 26758147.
   • Farias Junior, J. B. (2013). "Jameton, Andrew; Pierce, Jessica. The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Healthcare". Cadernos do PET Filosofia. 4 (7): 119–121. doi:10.26694/pet.v4i7.2096.
   • Churchill, L.R. and D. Schenck (2021). "Essential Reading for Bioethicists in the Anthropocene Era". Hastings Center Report 51: 3. doi:10.1002/hast.1262.
7. Pierce, Jessica (2005). Morality Play. New York: McGraw-Hill.
8. Pierce, Jessica. "Jessica Pierce". Retrieved 16 March 2023.
9. Cudworth, Erika, and Karen Shook (22 November 2012). "The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives". Times Higher Education. Accessed 3 September 2016.
10. Discussions:
    • Carrick, Paul (2011). "Contemporary Bioethics". Teaching Philosophy. 34 (2): 175–9. doi:10.5840/teachphil201134223.
11. Discussions:
    • Jensen, Christopher X. Jon (2010). "Wild Justice". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 85 (2): 226–7. doi:10.1086/652347. S2CID 225068821.
    • Sax, Boria (2010). "Book review: Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals". Anthrozoös 23 (2): 199–201.
    • Hediger, Ryan (2010). "Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals". Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 17 (1): 208–209. doi:10.1093/isle/isp121
    • Seale, Douglas (2013). "Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce: Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26 (5): 1053–55. doi:10.1007/s10806-013-9443-1
    • Lyons, Sherrie (2010). "Wild Justice by Marc Bekoff & Jessica Pierce". Philosophy Now. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • Fort, Tom (24 May 2009). "Wild Justice by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce and Made for Eachother [sic] by Meg Daley Olmert: review". Daily Telegraph. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • Blum, Deborah (6 May 2009). "Review: Wild Justice by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce". New Scientist. Accessed 3 September 2016.
12. Discussions:
    • Herzog, Harold (2013). "Psychology, Ethics, and the Death of Pets". Ethics & Behaviour 23 (4): 338–9. doi:10.1080/10508422.2012.757195.
    • Shafrir, Doree (5 October 2012). "Dog gone; How can we make our pets' deaths more humane?". Slate. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • Bekoff, Marc (12 September 2012). "Dogs: Their Last Walk at the End of Their Lives". Psychology Today. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • "The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Ryan, Thomas (2016). "The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives by Jessica Pierce (review)". Journal of Animal Ethics. 6 (2): 237–41. doi:10.5406/janimalethics.6.2.0237.
13. Discussions:
    • Run, Spot, Run. Kirkus Reviews. 28 February 2016. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • Bekoff, Marc (5 June 2016). "Why Should Spot Run? The Ins and Outs and Ups and Downs of Pet-Keeping". Huffington Post. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • King, Barbara J. (5 May 2016). "Should We Really Be Keeping Cats And Dogs — And Geckos — As Pets?". NPR. Accessed 3 September 2016.
    • McGreevy, Paul (6 May 2016). "Run, Spot, Run review: How keeping pets is not always in their best interests". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Braverman, Irus (7 October 2016). "Pet subjects". Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Kountaki, Dimitra (2019). "Jessica Pierce. Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016". Conatus - Journal of Philosophy. 4 (1): 137–40. doi:10.12681/cjp.19577. S2CID 210551851.
    • King, Roger J.H. (2017). "Jessica Pierce, Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets". Environmental Values. 26 (6): 779–81. doi:10.3197/096327117X15046905490380. S2CID 259178320.
    • Coghlan, Simon (2016). "Run, Spot, Run: The ethics of keeping pets by Jessica Pierce". Australian Book Review. No. 385. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
14. Discussions:
    • Molloy, Mark. "The Animals' Agenda". New Books Network. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Bekoff, Marc (25 March 2017). "The Animals' Agenda: An interview About Animal Well-Being". Psychology Today. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Cooper, Elissa. "The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age". Library Journal. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Iveson, Richard (2018). "Animal Studies". The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 26 (1): 185–204. doi:10.1093/ywcct/mby010.
15. Discussions:
    • Lewis, Jo (2017). "Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals: Principles and Practice". Vet Record. 181 (24): 662. doi:10.1136/vr.j5825. PMID 29247001. S2CID 207050270.
16. Discussions:
    • Bekoff, Marc (13 April 2019). "Dogs Watch Us Carefully and Read Our Faces Very Well". Psychology Today. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Soden, Greg (7 May 2019). "Unleashing Your Dog". New Books Network. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
17. Discussions:
    • Derr, Mark (27 December 2021). "How Would Dogs Fare in a World Without Humans?". Psychology Today. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
    • Barash, David P. (21 October 2021). "'A Dog's World' Review: When the Pug Joins the Pack". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
18. Discussions:
    • "Who's a Good Dog? And How to Be a Better Human". Publishers Weekly. September 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
    • Bekoff, Marc (5 September 2023). "How to Have a Good and Happy Dog and Be a Better Human". Psychology Today. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
19. Pierce, Jessica. "Scholarly Articles & Book Chapters". Accessed 16 March 2023.

External links

• Official site
• All Dogs Go to Heaven, Pierce's blog with Psychology Today