Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

A third of a century ago, when the modern animal-liberation movement was in its infancy, Martin published an essay entitled “A Critique of Moral Vegetarianism,” Reason Papers (fall 1976): 13-43. I suspect that many readers of this blog are Christians but not vegetarians. Philosophy is about reasons, not causes.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 16, 2010

Keith: As a historian or even an anthropologist, one could make the argument that being a vegetarian limits one's ability to understand other cultures. I, like you, am not a complete vegetarian. In other words, there are moral limits to science, as to law. In fact, my diet is worse, but I do justify my eating habits.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Steiner might feel less lonely as an ethical vegan—he says he has just five vegan friends—if he recognized that he has allies in mere vegetarians (like me), ethical omnivores and even carnivores. If the goal is not moral perfection for ourselves, but the maximum benefit for animals, half-measures ought to be encouraged and appreciated.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 14, 2009

The best thing that one can do for animals, in the long run, is to persuade people to stop eating them. Of all the ways of influencing behavior, rational persuasion is the most effective, the most secure (in the sense of long-lasting), and the most defensible from a moral point of view. The reason is that it has a backlash effect.

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Meat Animal Welfare Vegetarian Protecting Animals 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 5, 2007

Indeed, the ability of intelligent and educated people to avoid confronting the issue, or to offer endless evasions and rationalizations of delay on a question as straightforward as vegetarianism, even when they have heard and (reluctantly) accepted the argument in favor, is astonishing as well as depressing.

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Animal Person

JUNE 8, 2009

The tiresome Hitler was a well-known vegetarian comment is included in this segment, but I found it irksome long before that. He differentiates those animals from what he calls "the cute animals" which is important and one of the few passages that I appreciated in this series. Part III: Pepper Goes to Washington.

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Animal Welfare Monkeys Animal Welfare Act Vivisection 100