| Kyle Johannsen | |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Era: | 21st-century philosophy |
| Region: | Western philosophy |
| School Tradition: | Analytic philosophy |
| Notable Ideas: | Ethical duties toward wild animals |
| Thesis Title: | On the Conceptual Status of Justice |
| Thesis Url: | https://philarchive.org/rec/JOHOTC-3 |
| Thesis Year: | 2015 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Christine Sypnowich |
Kyle Johannsen is a Canadian philosopher. He specialises in animal and environmental ethics, as well as political and social philosophy, and is presently affiliated with Trent University and Queen's University. He's also a host on the New Books Network's Animal Studies podcast. Johannsen is the author of A Conceptual Investigation of Justice (2018) and Wild Animal Ethics (2020).
Johannsen read for a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in history at York University from 2003 to 2007, before reading for an M.A. in philosophy at the same institution from 2007 to 2009. He read for a PhD in philosophy at Queen's University from 2010 to 2015.[1] His dissertation was titled On the Conceptual Status of Justice and was supervised by Christine Sypnowich.[2]
Johannsen took up a visiting assistant professorship at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, from 2016 to 2017, followed by a visiting assistant professorship at Trent University from 2017 to 2018. He remained a sessional faculty member at Trent from 2018 onward. In 2020, Johannsen became an adjunct assistant professor at Queen's University and a Fellow in Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (APPLE) at the university. His research focuses on social and political philosophy, as well as animal and environmental ethics. Additionally, Johannsen is a host on the New Books Network's Animal Studies podcast.[3]
Johannsen published A Conceptual Investigation of Justice in 2018, a revised version of his dissertation as a book.[4] It was the subject of a symposium at the Canadian Philosophical Association's 2018 meeting. The presented papers were later published in .[5]
Johannsen's Wild Animal Ethics was published in 2020.[6] It investigates whether humans have a duty to reduce wild animal suffering from a deontological perspective. A symposium was held by APPLE on the book at Queen's University in the following year,[7] with the contributing papers later published in Philosophia.[8] The book was reviewed by Thomas Lepeltier in the French-language popular science magazine Sciences Humaines.[9]
In 2024, Johannsen published Positive Duties to Wild Animals, a collection of essays by various scholars that aims to advance the interventionist literature on wild animal suffering by employing diverse theoretical frameworks, including some that have not previously been used to establish positive duties toward wild animals.[10] It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethics, Policy & Environment.[11]