Susana Monsó

Hey there! Welcome to my website. I’m a philosopher working on animal minds and animal ethics, currently an associate professor in the Department of Logic, History, and Philosophy of Science of UNED, Madrid (Spain). Feel free to nose around!

If you want to get in touch with me, you can send me an email to smonso [at] fsof [dot] uned [dot] es

You can also find me on Bluesky, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and PhilPeople.

All nonhuman animal pictures on this website are from Unsplash.

I was born in Madrid in 1988. I hold a BA in Philosophy from Complutense University of Madrid, an MA in Global Ethics and Human Values from King’s College London, and a PhD in Philosophy from UNED, Spain. I have been a post-doc fellow at the University of Graz and at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna and am now based in the Department of Logic, History, and Philosophy of Science of UNED.

Since you clicked your way into this site, you may be interested in some further random facts about me:

My pronouns are she/her.

I am the co-founder of the Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behavior Association and a member of METIS and SWIP-Analytic Spain. I also run the Animal Cognition & Ethics mailing list.

In my free time I enjoy acting in plays of dubious quality, playing board games, and reading novels with badass female characters.

My surname is pronounced “Mons-OH”, and I will secretly judge you if you spell it without an accent.

If I could belong to a different species, I would choose to be a humpback whale.

I’m the author of Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death, which has been recommended in The New York Times, and selected as one of the best books of 2024 by The New Yorker and The New Statesman.

I’m interested in what animals are capable of feeling, thinking, and doing, and what this means for the sort of treatment that we owe them.

Most of my research has focused on (socio-)cognitive capacities traditionally viewed as uniquely human, such as morality or a concept of death. I’m interested in exploring to what extent these preconceptions respond to over-intellectualised accounts of these capacities or to skewed interpretations of the available data. I am also involved in devising conceptually more robust (and more ethical) ways of studying animal minds, and reflecting on the ethical implications of new discoveries in comparative cognition.

My work is highly inter-disciplinary and involves collaborations with philosophers and scientists from different fields. In addition, I aim for my research to have an impact beyond academia, having published popular pieces in outlets like TIME magazine, Aeon, and New Scientist.

You can check out what I’ve written until now by having a look at my publications.

Academic publications (selection):

Monsó, S. & Danón, L. (forthcoming): ‘Death-feigning, animal concepts, and the use of empirical case studies in animal cognition.’ The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. DOI: 10.1086/733889

Monsó, S. (2024): Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death. Princeton University Press.

Melis, G. & Monsó, S. (2024): ‘Are humans the only rational animals?’ The Philosophical Quarterly, 74 (3), 844–864.

Gruen, L. & Monsó, S. (2024): Revision of the ‘Moral status of animals’ entry. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Monsó, S. & Hintze, S. (2023): ‘For their own good? The unseen harms of disenhancing farmed animals’ in Abbate, C. E. & Bobier, C. (eds.): New Omnivorism and Strict Veganism: Critical Perspectives. Routledge.

Monsó, S. & Moore, R. (2023): ‘Normative expectations in human and nonhuman animals.’ Perspectives on Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/17456916231187401

Monsó, S. (2022): ‘How to tell if animals can understand death.’ Erkenntnis, 87, 117–136.

Monsó, S. & Andrews, K. (2022): ‘Animal moral psychologies’ in Vargas, M. & Doris, J. (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology, pp. 388–420. New York: Oxford University Press.

Monsó, S. & Osuna-Mascaró, A.J. (2021): ‘Death is common, so is understanding it: The concept of death in other species.’ Synthese, 199 (1), 2251–2275.

Monsó, S. & Wrage, B. (2021): ‘Tactful animals: How the study of touch can inform the animal morality debate.’ Philosophical Psychology, 34 (1), 1–27.

Andrews, K. & Monsó, S. (2021): Rewrite of the ‘Animal cognition’ entry. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Monsó, S. & Osuna-Mascaró, A.J. (2020): ‘Problems with basing insect ethics on individuals’ welfare.’ Animal Sentience, 29 (8).

Monsó, S., Benz-Schwarzburg, J., & Bremhorst, A. (2018): ‘Animal morality: What it means and why it matters.’ The Journal of Ethics, 22 (3–4), 283–310.

Monsó, S. (2017): ‘Morality without mindreading.’ Mind & Language, 32 (3), 338–57.

Rowlands, M. & Monsó, S. (2017): ‘Animals as reflexive thinkers: the aponoian paradigm’ in Kalof, L. (ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies, pp: 319-343. New York: Oxford University Press.

Monsó, S. (2015): ‘Empathy and morality in behaviour readers.’ Biology & Philosophy, 30 (5), 671-690.

Outreach (selection):

Ongoing projects:

• A paper on the philosophy of comparative cognition, with Kristin Andrews.
• Another paper on the philosophy of comparative cognition, with Richard Moore.
• A paper on the ethical implications of animals’ concept of death, with Eze Paez.
• A paper on animal medicine, with Cristian Saborido.

For a full list of publications, click here.

This is a selection of my appearances in the press. For a full list, click here.

The best books of 2024 — Mention in The New Yorker (04/12/2024)

Books of the year 2024 — Mention in The New Statesman (13/11/2024)

Beasts and the Big Sleep — Review of Playing Possum in the Wall Street Journal (12/11/2024)

6 new books we recommend this week — Mention in The New York Times (31/10/2024)

The best books we read this week — Mention in The New Yorker (30/10/2024)

What ants and orcas can teach us about death — Interview for The New York Times (29/10/2024)

What do animals understand about death? — Review of Playing Possum in The New Yorker (28/10/2024)

What do animals know about death? — Review of Playing Possum in The New York Times (23/10/2024)

Animals’ understanding of death — Interview for the American podcast Talk Nerdy (21/10/2024)

Could animals possibly understand death? — Interview for the American radio programme Think KERA (18/10/2024)

How do animals understand death? — Interview for the American radio programme Science Friday (18/10/2024)

Dieren zijn soms in rouw om een dierbare — Mention in the Dutch news paper NRC (16/10/2024)

The best of the academic presses for autumn 2024 — Mention in The New Statesman (16/10/2024)

What we can learn from animals about death and mortality — Interview for Ars Technica (16/10/2024)

Πώς πενθούν οι φάλαινες, πώς αντιλαμβάνονται τον θάνατο οι σκύλοι; — Interview for the Greek newspaper Kathimerini (15/10/2024)

Animals Know More About Death and Dying Than We Often Assume — Interview for Psychology Today (15/10/2024)

Do animals understand death? — Interview for the Boston Globe (10/10/2024)

‘Elephants show immense interest in corpses’: Susana Monsó, the philosopher examining what animals know about death — Interview for The Observer, Sunday supplement of The Guardian (06/10/2024)

Do Animals Understand Death? The Latest Science Might Surprise You — Interview for the American magazine Gizmodo (30/09/2024)

Μπορούν τα ζώα να κατανοήσουν τον θάνατο και πώς πενθούν; — Mention in the Greek magazine Neolaia (16/09/2024)

Cosa sanno gli animali della morte? — Mention in the Italian newspaper Il Post (16/09/2024)

Do animals know that they will die? — Mention in the American magazine The Atlantic (09/09/2024)

Mortal coils — Review of Playing Possum by Sy Montgomery for The American Scholar (03/09/2024)

Dans le cimetière des éléphants — Interview for the French magazine Epsiloon (24/07/2024)

How animals grieve — Interview for the 1A show on the American National Public Radio (26/06/2024)

Los animales también tienen cultura — Interview for the Spanish magazine Muy Interesante (02/2024)

¿Saben los animales que van a morir? — Mention in the Spanish magazine Muy Interesante (27/11/2023)

«Опоссум Шредингера. Смерть в мире животных» Думают ли слоны о смерти — Mention in the Russian magazine N+1 (30/10/2023)

Quand les animaux tentent un coup de bluff — Interview for the French Magazine Epsiloon (28/08/2023)

Susana Monsó, filósofa: “Estudiar cómo viven los animales la muerte nos ayuda a naturalizar el duelo” — Interview for the Spanish newspaper El País (05/07/2023)

Do animals grieve? — Interview for the American podcast Unexplainable (Vox) (28/06/2023)

¿Es el ser humano el único animal que piensa? — Interview for the Spanish radio programme Punto de Enlace (RNE) (26/06/2023)

La muerte en el mundo animal — Interview for the Spanish national TV station La 2 (23/06/2023)

Is human intelligence overrated? — Interview for the Canadian radio CBC (22/06/2023)

Comportamiento e inteligencia animal — Interview for the Spanish radio programme A Hombros de Gigantes (RNE) (13/05/2023)

¿La moral nos diferencia de otros animales? — Mention in the Spanish magazine Muy Interesante (04/2023)

Pensar como las bestias: nuevas miradas sobre la inteligencia animal — Interview for the Spanish newspaper El País (16/04/2023)

Gli animali concepiscono la morte? Lo scopriamo con Susana Monsò e il suo «opossum di Schrödinger» — Interview for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (17/03/2023)

Ma quanto è buono (da morto) il padrone! — Mention in the Italian newspaper Il Sole (19/02/23)

Necrofobia, tanatosis y otros secretos animales — Interview for the Spanish podcast Lo que tú digas (08/02/23)

Susana Monsó: «Los perros y los gatos nos tienen totalmente domesticados» — Interview for the Spanish magazine XLSemanal (25/09/2022)

La ballena que paseó a su bebé muerto por medio mundo — Mention in El Caballo de Nietzsche, the animal ethics blog of the Spanish newspaper elDiario.es (09/07/2022)

¿Pueden ser morales el resto de animales? — Mention in the Spanish newspaper El País (28/05/2022)

Susana Monsó: «Nos da miedo aceptar que somos depredadores» — Interview for the Spanish magazine Zenda (10/05/2022)

Animal minds and animal morality — Interview (with Kristin Andrews) for the American podcast Many Minds (28/04/2022)

Do animals understand what it means to die? — Interview for VICE magazine (02/02/2022)

Animals respond to death in many ways. Mourning might be one of them. — Interview for Discover Magazine (21/01/2022)

Holt volt, holt nem volt: a halál — Interview for the Hungarian magazine 168 Óra (31/10/2021)

‘Manche Tiere ahmen verwesende Leichen nach’ — Interview for the German newspaper Der Spiegel (30/10/2021)

Power and possums — Interview for the Australian national radio ABC (25/10/2021)

‘Playing possum’ shows animals know death — Mention in Nature’s newsletter Nature Briefing (21/09/2021)

¿Tienen moral los animales? — Interview for the Spanish press agency EFE (picked up by the Spanish newspapers El Mundo and Público, among others) (02/07/2019)

You can download my CV by clicking here.