Charles Russell Magel (June 3, 1920 – March 22, 2014) was an American philosopher, animal rights activist and bibliographer. He was professor emeritus of Philosophy and Ethics at Moorhead State University.
Charles Magel | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Charles Russell Magel June 3, 1920 Burlington, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | March 22, 2014 (aged 93) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Philosopher, animal rights activist, bibliographer |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Institutions | Moorhead State University |
| Thesis | An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories |
Main interests | |
Early life
editMagel was born on June 3, 1920 in Burlington, Iowa,[1] where he grew up on a 150-acre farm with eight siblings. He studied electrical engineering at Iowa State College, going on to study at Northwestern University for three years.[2]
After graduation, he worked as a night clerk at a hotel and served for five years in the US Naval Reserve during the Second World War.[2] In 1950, inspired by Albert Schweitzer's autobiography Out of My Life and Thought, Magel enrolled in graduate school at the University of Minnesota to study philosophy.[2]
Magel submitted his dissertation, An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories in 1960.[3] In 1962, he initiated a philosophy program at Moorhead State University.[2]
Career
editAfter reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation and Tom Regan's "The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism", in 1975, Magel became a vegetarian and introduced an animal rights course onto the philosophy curriculum, making it one of the first university courses completely focused on the topic.[2] He was considered to be a pioneer of applied ethics.[4]
He was an outspoken opponent of animal testing, once stating: "Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction."[5]
In the 1980 edition of Henry S. Salt's Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress, edited by Peter Singer, Magel updated Salt's original bibliography.[6] In 1981, Magel published A Bibliography on Animal Rights and Related Matters lists over 3,200 works. He retired from teaching in 1985.[2]
In 1989, Magel authored Keyguide to Information Sources in Animal Rights a bibliography of works dealing with animal rights. It was positively reviewed as an "outstanding resource that many academic libraries will want to acquire."[7] Another review described it as a "carefully crafted and scholarly overview to the literature and philosophy of the animal rights movement."[8]
Magel published a new edition of J. Howard Moore's The Universal Kinship in 1992, which included a biographical essay of Moore,[9] and in 1997, he released a new edition of Lewis Gompertz's Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes.[10]
Death
editMagel died on March 22, 2014, aged 93.[1] He left Moorhead State University $800,000 to establish the Charles R. Magel Endowment Fund.[11]
Selected publications
editBooks
edit- A Bibliography on Animal Rights and Related Matters. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. 1981. ISBN 978-0819114884.
- Keyguide to Information Sources in Animal Rights. London: Mansell. 1989. ISBN 978-0720119848.
- Moore, J. Howard (1992). Magel, Charles (ed.). The Universal Kinship. Fontwell: Centaur Press. ISBN 978-0900001345.
- Gompertz, Lewis (1997). Magel, Charles (ed.). Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0773487222.
Papers
edit- Magel, Charles R. (1980). "The Moral Status of Animals". Environmental Ethics (Book Review). 2 (2): 179–185. doi:10.5840/enviroethics19802235.
- Magel, Charles (1985). "Animals: Moral Rights and Legal Rights". Between the Species. 1 (2). doi:10.15368/bts.1985v1n2.2.
- Magel, Charles (1988). "Journey From Iowa Farm Boy to Animal Rights Bibliographer". Between the Species. 4 (4). doi:10.15368/bts.1988v4n4.14.
- Magel, Charles (1990). "Animal Liberators Are Not Anti-Science". Between the Species. 6 (4). doi:10.15368/bts.1990v6n4.12.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Recent death: Charles Magel". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
- ^ a b c d e f Magel, Charles (1988-10-01). "Journey From Iowa Farm Boy to Animal Rights Bibliographer". Between the Species. 4 (4). doi:10.15368/bts.1988v4n4.14.
- ^ Magel, Charles R. (1960). An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories (PhD thesis). University of Minnesota.
- ^ Glass-Moore, Adrian (2014-06-26). "Late MSUM professor donates $800,000 to school for scholarships". INFORUM. Archived from the original on 2021-11-29. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
- ^ Kemmerer, Lisa, ed. (2015). Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 151. ISBN 978-1317251644.
- ^ Clark, Stephen (January 1983). "Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress". The Philosophical Quarterly. 33 (130): 98. doi:10.2307/2219213. JSTOR 2219213.
- ^ Nyberg, Cheryl Rae. (1990). Reviewed Work: Keyguide to Information Sources in Animal Rights by Charles R. Magel. Reference and User Services Quarterly 29 (3): 444-446.
- ^ Watstein, Sarah Barbara. (1991). Outstanding Reference Sources: A 1991 Selection of Recent Titles. American Libraries 22 (5): 393-439.
- ^ Helstosky, Carol, ed. (2014). The Routledge History of Food. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 198. ISBN 978-1317621133.
- ^ Gompertz, Lewis (1997). Magel, Charles (ed.). Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes. Mellen Animal Rights Library Series. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0773487222.
- ^ "Philosophy professor emeritus Charles Magel donates $800,000 to MSUM". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2020-04-06.