The Ethics of Meat-Eating

Do ethics apply to the entire animal kingdom? What kind of ethical principles should exist for animals in the wild and for animals bred for slaughter? Join the Syracuse Philosophy Meetup as we discuss engaging ideas from two essays on animal ethics taken from the book Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments.

The first essay, The Meat Eaters by Jeff McMahan, asks whether animals in the wild commit evil through making each other suffer. Is there something morally wrong when a carnivore tears its prey to pieces?

The second essay, The Enigma of Animal Suffering by Rhys Southan, addresses the problem of animal farming. He questions assumptions animal activists make when they draw analogies between humans and animals, and proposes three premises that might make animal farming ethically acceptable.

Note: Final Location To Be Determined, we're experimenting with different libraries. I'll finalize the location at least one week in advance.

You can find the two essays in the book Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments (which is filled with other fascinating essays), or online here:

The Meat Eaters
https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/the-meat-eaters/

The Enigma of Animal Suffering
https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/how-similar-are-human-and-animal-suffering/

I highly recommend reading the essays before coming, as they aren’t too long or dense, but it’s not required.

Happy Thinking!