Joe Lau

Vegetarianism and animal rights

Issues

It is illegal in most countries to torture animals, and most people would think it is wrong to kick a dog or a cat just for fun. Yet most people think it is not wrong to eat meat, even though animals often suffer a lot during the farming and slaughter process. What are the arguments for thinking that eating meat is morally acceptable? What are the arguments against it? Is this something worth caring about? And if other people do not stop eating meat, why should we?

Required reading

  • Peter Singer (1989) "All Animals Are Equal" in Regan and Singer (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations, New Jersey, pp. 148-162. online version

Useful resources

  • Ch 2 of Colin McGinn (1992). Moral literacy, or, How to do the right thing. Duckworth. hkulib:b1318493 google books
  • Sunstein, C. R. (2004). Introduction: What are Animal Rights? (pp. 3-15) In C. R. Sunstein & M. C. Nussbaum (Eds.), Animal rights: Current debates and new directions . Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. hkulib:b3980939 amazon
  • Sunstein, Cass R. (2002). The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer. U Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 157; U of Chicago, Public Law Research Paper No. 30. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=323661 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.323661
  • David DeGrazia (2002). Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)'. OUP. hkulib:b2374150
  • An article on animal rights by Joe Lau in Chinese: http://goo.gl/tFDlO

Videos