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Charles Magel

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Charles Russell Magel
Born(1920-06-03)June 3, 1920
Burlington, Iowa
DiedMarch 22, 2014(2014-03-22) (aged 93)
Occupation(s)Philosopher, animal rights activist, bibliographer

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.

Life and career

Magel was born June 3, 1920, and grew up in Burlington, Iowa,[1] where he lived 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. He worked as a night clerk at a hotel after graduation and served for five years in the US Naval Reserve during the Second World War. 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. He submitted his dissertation, An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories in 1960.[2] In 1962, he initiated a philosophy program at Moorhead State University. After 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.[3]

In 1981, Magel published A Bibliography on Animal Rights and Related Matters lists over 3,200 works.[4][5] He retired from teaching in 1985.[3] 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."[6] Another review described it as a "carefully crafted and scholarly overview to the literature and philosophy of the animal rights movement."[7] In 1992, a new edition of J. Howard Moore's The Universal Kinship was published, edited by Magel and including a biographical essay of the author.[8] In 1997, Magel published an edited edition of Lewis Gompertz's Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes.[9]

Magel died on March 22, 2014,[1] he left Moorhead State University $800,000 to establish the Charles R. Magel Endowment Fund.[10]

Activism

Magel was an outspoken advocate against animal testing; he once stated:

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.[11]

Selected publications

Books

  • Magel, Charles R. (1981). A Bibliography on Animal Rights and Related Matters. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 978-0819114884.
  • Magel, Charles R. (1989). Keyguide to Information Sources in Animal Rights. London: Mansell. 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

References

  1. ^ a b "Recent death: Charles Magel". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2020-04-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Magel, Charles R. (1960). An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories (PhD thesis). University of Minnesota.
  3. ^ a b 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.
  4. ^ Nash, Roderick Frazier. (1989). The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 273. ISBN 0-299-11840-1
  5. ^ Nash, Roderick Frazier (1989). The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0299118433.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Watstein, Sarah Barbara. (1991). Outstanding Reference Sources: A 1991 Selection of Recent Titles. American Libraries 22 (5): 393-439.
  8. ^ Helstosky, Carol, ed. (2014). The Routledge History of Food. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 198. ISBN 978-1317621133.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Philosophy professor emeritus Charles Magel donates $800,000 to MSUM". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2020-04-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Kemmerer, Lisa, ed. (2015). Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 151. ISBN 978-1317251644.
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