Vegetarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed

Description

The choice of whether or not to consume animals is more than merely a dietary one. It frequently reflects deep ethical commitments or religious convictions that serve as the bedrock of an entire lifestyle. Proponents of vegetarianism frequently infuriate nonvegetarians, who feel that they’re being morally condemned because of what they choose to eat. Vegetarians are frequently infuriated by what they consider to be the nonvegetarians’ disregard for the environment and animal-suffering. Vegetarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a much needed survey of the different arguments offered by ethical vegetarians and their critics. In a rigorous but accessible manner, the author scrutinizes the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in defense of vegetarianism based on compassion, rights, interests, eco-feminism, environmentalism, anthrocentrism, and religion. Authors examined include Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Carol J. Adams, and Kathryn Paxton George. As the global climate crisis worsens, population increases, and fossil fuels disappear, ethical and public policy questions about the ethics of diet will become ever more urgent. This book is a useful resource for thinking through the questions. Cover Half title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction: The ethics of diet Who are vegetarians? “An appropriate place to begin” 1 Animals, pain, and factory farms Animals and pain Factory farms: Animals as units Chickens Egg batteries Beef cattle Veal calves and dairy cows Pork Fish Slaughter Bridging the moral gap 2 The basic argument Kinship and sympathy The nuts and bolts Is the basic argument too basic? Underdetermined Anthropocentric The gustatory objection Killing animals allows them to live Fellow creatures 3 The argument from interests Equal consideration and interest satisfaction Eating animals Singer’s critics Inadequacy of utilitarianism Arbitrariness Confusion Human specialness “Commandment number 7: All animals are equal” 4 The argument from rights Subjects-of-a-life, inherent value, and rights Alternative rights arguments Objections to the argument from rights A contrived fit The Benjamin Franklin objection A shell game Contractarianism “A matter of strict justice” 5 The ecofeminist argument The ecofeminist context Vegetarianism and care Dissenting voices Broadening the circle 6 The environmental argument Meat-eating and environmental degradation Does the environment have moral standing? Ecofeminist and social ecology arguments The land ethic Deep ecology Objections From the environment to humans 7 The anthrocentric argument You are what you eat The indivisibility of violence You are what I eat A vegetarianism that’s easy to swallow 8 The reverence for life argument “Life as such is sacred” The Hindu and Buddhist traditions The Abrahamic traditions Reverence: Religious and otherwise Notes Works cited Index