Charles Magel

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Charles Magel
Born
Charles Russell Magel

(1920-06-03)June 3, 1920
Burlington, Iowa, U.S.
DiedMarch 22, 2014(2014-03-22) (aged 93)
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Philosopher, animal rights activist, bibliographer
EraContemporary philosophy
InstitutionsMoorhead State University
ThesisAn Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories
Main interests

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.

Early life[edit]

Magel 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[edit]

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.[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]

In 1992, Magel published a new edition of J. Howard Moore's The Universal Kinship, including a biographical essay of Moore.[9]

In 1997, Magel published a new edition of Lewis Gompertz's Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes.[10]

Death[edit]

Magel 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[edit]

Books[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]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Recent death: Charles Magel". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Magel, Charles R. (1960). An Analysis of Kierkegaard's Philosophic Categories (PhD thesis). University of Minnesota.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Kemmerer, Lisa, ed. (2015). Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 151. ISBN 978-1317251644.
  6. ^ Clark, Stephen (January 1983). "Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress". The Philosophical Quarterly. 33 (130): 98. doi:10.2307/2219213. JSTOR 2219213.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Watstein, Sarah Barbara. (1991). Outstanding Reference Sources: A 1991 Selection of Recent Titles. American Libraries 22 (5): 393-439.
  9. ^ Helstosky, Carol, ed. (2014). The Routledge History of Food. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 198. ISBN 978-1317621133.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Philosophy professor emeritus Charles Magel donates $800,000 to MSUM". Minnesota State University Moorhead. 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2020-04-06.

External links[edit]

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