Steven Frederic Sapontzis^[2] (born February 9, 1945) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, East Bay who specializes in animal ethics, environmental ethics and meta-ethics.

Sapontzis was born in New York City, the son of Zissis Peter and Lea Marie Vial Sapontzis.^[1] He obtained his BA from Rice University in 1967, his MPhil in 1970, and PhD from Yale University in 1971;^[3] his thesis was entitled Merleau-Ponty and Philosophical Methodology.^[4] Sapontzis joined the philosophy faculty at California State University, East Bay, in 1971, and became professor emeritus in 1999.^[3]

Sapontzis was co-founder in 1985 of the journal Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics and served as its initial co-editor.^[5] He was a member of the board of the American Philosophical Quarterly (1991–1994), and sat on the animal welfare research committee at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1986–1990).^[6]

In 1983, Sapontzis founded, with his wife, the Hayward Friends of Animals Humane society.^[7] They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in the Need, in California.^[7] Sapontzis was also one of the first members of the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals.^[1]

Sapontzis has authored numerous papers,^[8] as well as two books: Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)^[9] and Subjective Morals (2011).^[10] He also edited the book Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat (2004).^[11]

• List of animal rights advocates