Hi. Today, while reading the environmental philo readings( which i was supposed to read last week-see how many piles of readings and text i have to catch up), i bumped into this argument that the ultitarians are objecting against: Eating factory-farmed meat is wrong because it causes a lot of unhappiness and unnecessary suffering to the animals.
Utilitarians as they are, they always want to maximise aggregate pleasure and minimise pain. Then the argument goes like this: Thus, it is alright to eat rear happy animals and kill them in a painless way before eating them since pain is minimised and pleasure maximised ( by the humans who enjoy eating meat).Therefore, it is not wrong to eat meat when the animal is treated well before being painlessly killed.
okay, it is not that this argument convinced me that i should be a vegan or a vegetarian since it allows me to eat meat of happy animals, babies or even pets. It is the description of the process of killing and rearing the animals that is repugnant. It is disgusting.
Pls read this( this is only part of the description about cruelty towards the pigs):
Pigs are crowded into small caged areas with the concrete foors instead of mud.....one sign of stress in pigs is anti-social behaviour. They bite off one another's tails.Rather than recommending stress relief, they dock their tails with blunt instruments or side cutting pliers.
They do not recommend any anaesthetic....The stress is obvoius- the animals have no where to go and nothing to do. ( this seems analogous to constrained children under supervision by their parents who do not allow them to play- all they do is to study, eat, slp and listen to their parents. I think matured children are not really happy as they seem. They lack the fredom to be in control of their lives. Parents who over restrict their childrens behaviour and movements are treating their children analogously to pigs...maybe a little better only.)
Now about sows: while pregnant they are locked up individually, confined to a cage scarcely bigger than the sow herself.THey are unable to walk more than a asingle step front or back.they cant exercise , move nor turn around.
WHen the sow is ready to give birth, she is moved....and more restricted in her movements than she was in her stall to prevent rolling and crushing her piglets.....More gross description is available, especially factory farming of chickens. Those who are interested can ask me for the readings or u can g RBR to borrow- ask me for the code)
After reading it, i had this urge to not to meat (chicken and pork). Fishes not included as i shall discuss next time. they dont have conscious experiences.
I think Fruits and Vegetables are the best. Then again, would eating vegetables or any plants ( which are living things ) be wrong too?They are all living things that have a will to live( as Taylor puts it), we should have reverence for life.
Then wad should we eat? Drink Water will do? Eat naturally dead carcesses? Eat rotten fruits and vegetables?
Food for thought!
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I kind of agree with the cruelty towards animals. I watched the show 'unauthorised access' about the killing of pigs in Singapore. they tried to do it in as humane a way as possible. Thus, according to Utilitarian, they are minimising pain and maximising consumers' pleasure. But in my opinion, the cruelty can never be reduced to a low enough level as to be able to be compensated by derived pleasure. I haven't eaten pork for a no. of years already and will definitely continue to do so. Meanwhile, I eat a lot of fishes. Cos like u say, fishes don't have conciousness. Plants don't too. So I believe I'm not inflicting harm by eating so much veges.
Taylor's moral truth is based on his own set of values. We do not have to follow his belief. So thankfully I am still able to eat my vegetables with a clear conscience =)
On the other hand, regarding his reverence for life in general.
I had this argument before, why shouldn't we eat babies. The explanation is quite lengthy so I shall not go into detail. But using rational thinking, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing intrinsic about the life of a human much less the life of a plant. Although I won't be eating babies anytime soon. Rather although I believe there is no logical intrinsic value in life itself, it is our values (perhaps irrational in the sense that since I am human, humans must have value) notice my hierarchy of humans over plant life also ;)
The plight of the factory animals certainly paints a very cruel picture of the meat industry. But this picture makes choices very easy also, since everything is in black and white. An image of a happy farm is also ingrained into our minds, where animals (are innocent) roam freely. What if animals instead posed a threat to humans? Would this rationalize cruel treatment? But given the current situation, I would still eat meat as long as I do not see how they slaughter the animals. Even though I have watched the docudrama. (I can still live with some inconsistencies in my life haha)
Its quite interesting that the life of fishes are not comparable animals because they do not have consciousness. If there was a yummy person who is a vegetable and has no possible chance of recovery. Can I eat him??
Some random ramblings, its 4am in the morning and my brain is not functioning properly haha
caiyu!
U said: so i believe i'm not inflicting harm by eating so much veges.
I don't see how that eating lots of veges will be inflicting less harm on your part ( on taylor's view. Not that i am supporting him, but i find that the notion of life is what people construe of as valuable. Maybe there isnt any intrinsic value at all. maybe after all humans are just like plants are not worthy of their own moral status? they just regeard themselves too highly?
Btw, I didn't know there are still pig farms in singapore.I knew there were chichken farms though. yup and i agree that in factory farming and killing , there cant be any humane way since killing the pig innocently would be be " harming the pig's " interest" and to make his life fare ill. then again one might say since its life is so miserable, we are justified in killing it (maybe on utilitarian grounds) . However, Ithink by doing so, it is like possing a problem and solving it
themselves. They justify their act of killing the animal by torturing the animal.They CAUSE the suffer and pretend to be noble by Killling it.
Joshua! i agree with you that there will have to be many inconsistencies in life for the choices we make. we are not like a machine who will shut down when there's an error or dilema/ contradiction. we still can function with errors and make do with it.
About the qn of eating a vegetable( comatose person), it is an absurd consequence that would folllow by one who takes carruther's view about "conscious experience" that's why i didnt talk about it here( i would use up lots of time and space). lOl
I agree with the " no intrinsic value ' point of view too.
I dont think eating imbeciles or infants would be MORALLY regugnant,its is just regugnant, without the moral factor attatched.
I wouldnt eat them though.
yup that's y i think i stand as a moral skeptic.To be elaborated next time.
and btw, im wondering why no one brought up the issue about how i see freedomless children being treated similarly like pigs by their parents...maybe u all agree with me.lol
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