Bob Fischer

Robert William Fischer is an American philosopher who specializes in epistemology (especially modal epistemology) and ethics (especially animal ethics). He is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Texas State University, a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, and the Director of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals. His books include Modal Justification via Theories, in which he defends his account of "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality", and The Ethics of Eating Animals, in which he argues that animal agriculture is frequently morally impermissible, but that veganism is nonetheless not morally required.

Fischer read for a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and English at State University of New York at Geneseo from 2001 to 2004. He went on to read for a Master of Arts at Trinity International University (awarded 2006), and then pursued a PhD in philosophy at the University of Illinois Chicago (being awarded a second MA, this time from Illinois, in 2010). He submitted his doctoral thesis, which was entitled Modal Knowledge, in Theory, in 2011. His advisor (and thesis committee chair) was W. D. Hart; the other committee members were Colin Klein, Walter Edelberg, Daniel Sutherland, and Karen Bennett.

From Illinois, he moved to Texas State University, first (2011–2013) as a Senior Lecturer, and subsequently as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy (2013–19) and then an Associate Professor of Philosophy (2019–present). Fischer is a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities and the Director of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals.

Fischer's first sole-authored monograph was Modal Justification via Theories, in which he defends a "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality". According to this account, agents can have a justified belief in modal claims about certain kinds of "extraordinary" matters (e.g., philosophical issues) only if the claim follows from a theory in which they have a justified belief. Key to Fischer's account is that abductive reasoning (such as appeals to the virtue of simplicity) is well-placed to help agents to identify the theories that they are justified in believing. The epistemologists Antonella Mallozzi, Anand Vaidya, and Michael Wallner give the example of mind-body dualism. On Fischer's Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality, "we are justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible only if we are justified in believing a theory T from which mind-body dualism follows", but if T "is not the simplest theory, all else being equal, then one would not be justified in believing it, and thus not be justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible".

His second was The Ethics of Eating Animals: Usually Bad, Sometimes Wrong, Often Permissible. Fischer initially set out argue that veganism was morally required on all major ethical theories, but this is not the argument of the book. Instead, Fischer argues that although raising animals for food is frequently morally impermissible, it does not follow that veganism is morally required. He argues that act consequentialism and deontological cases for veganism fail to establish that we are obliged to be vegan. For consequentialists, he says, the "causal inefficacy problem" shows that an individual's dietary choices will fail to impact animal agriculture. He claims that deontologists, meanwhile, need to bridge the "production/consumption gap", and explain why the wrongness of producing animal products grounds the wrongness of eating animal products. These problems aside, he further argues, both consquentialist and deontological cases for veganism will permit (or favor) eating "unusual" animal products, including roadkill and insects. Nonetheless, Fischer argues that people who voluntarily choose to become animal activists may oblige themselves to be vegan.

Monographs

• Fischer, Bob (2017). Modal Justification via Theories. Springer.
• Fischer, Bob (2020). The Ethics of Eating Animals: Usually Bad, Sometimes Wrong, Often Permissible. Routledge.

Textbooks

• Fischer, Bob (2021). Animal Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.

Collections

• Bramble, Ben, and Bob Fischer (eds.) (2015). The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat. Oxford University Press.
• Fischer, Bob, and Felipe Leon (eds.) (2017). Modal Epistemology After Rationalism. Springer.
• Fischer, Bob (ed.)(2017). College Ethics: A Reader on Moral Issues That Affect You. Oxford University Press.
  • Second edition published 2020.
• Fischer, Bob (ed.) (2020). The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics. Routledge.
• Fischer, Bob (ed.) (2020). Ethics, Left and Right: The Moral Issues That Divide Us. Oxford University Press.