Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism by Huemer, Michael;

Short description:

Worldwide every year, 83 billion animals are slaughtered on factory farms, at the end of brief lives full of suffering. Is it wrong to buy the products of this industry? In this book, two college students – a meat-eater and an ethical vegetarian – discuss this question in a series of dialogues conducted over five days.

Long description:

Worldwide every year, 83 billion animals are slaughtered on factory farms, at the end of brief lives full of suffering. Is it wrong to buy the products of this industry?

In this book, two college students – a meat-eater and an ethical vegetarian – discuss this question in a series of dialogues conducted over five days. Issues covered include: how intelligence affects the badness of pain, whether consumers are responsible for the practices of the industry, how individual choices affect an industry, whether farm animals are better off living on factory farms than not existing at all, whether meat-eating is natural, whether morality protects those who cannot understand morality, whether morality protects those who are not members of society, whether humans alone possess souls, whether different creatures have different degrees of consciousness, why extreme animal welfare positions "sound crazy," and the role of empathy in moral judgment. The two go on to discuss the vegan life, why people who accept the arguments often fail to change their behavior, and how vegans should interact with non-vegans.

This Second Edition also covers many new topics, including:

• Satisfying nutritional needs with plant-based foods


• The overall health effects of vegetarian diets


• The consumer costs of a plant-based diet


• Synthetic meat


• Food deserts


• Christian-inspired arguments for and against veganism


• Progressive-inspired arguments for and against veganism


• A new appendix offers readers delicious vegan recipes, including ones for Carrot Ginger Soup, Avocado Toast, Compassionate Chili, and The Smoothie of the Gods.

Key Features:

• Thoroughly reviews the common arguments on both sides of the debate


• Dialogue format provides the most engaging way of introducing the issues


• Written in clear, conversational prose for a popular audience


• Offers new insights into the psychology of our dietary choices and our responsibility for influencing others


• New in this edition, several easy and delicious vegan recipes

Praise for the First Edition:

"In the future, when people ask me why I don’t eat meat, I will tell them to read this book."

-- Peter Singer, from the Foreword

Table of Contents:

Day 1: Suffering, Intelligence, and the Risk Argument  Day 2: Other Defenses of Meat Consumption  Day 3: Consciousness and Rational Belief  Day 4: The Vegan life, Abstract Theory, and Moral Motivation  Day 5: Health, Religious Arguments, and Progressive Arguments  Appendix 1: Recipes  Appendix 2: Annotated Bibliography