Duty and the Beast
Should We Eat Meat in the Name of Animal Rights?

Analyzes current philosophical and scientific debates about animal rights and the ethics of eating meat.

Andy Lamey (Author)

9781316612880, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 September 2021

270 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.369 kg

'Lamey's book is a highly sophisticated, yet lucid and innovative, philosophical investigation on how non-human animals ought to be treated. Those who appreciate philosophical thought experiments and/or science-informed discussions on ethics will find Lamey's work essential reading.' Markku Oksanen, Environmental Values

The moral status of animals is a subject of controversy both within and beyond academic philosophy, especially regarding the question of whether and when it is ethical to eat meat. A commitment to animal rights and related notions of animal protection is often thought to entail a plant-based diet, but recent philosophical work challenges this view by arguing that, even if animals warrant a high degree of moral standing, we are permitted - or even obliged - to eat meat. Andy Lamey provides critical analysis of past and present dialogues surrounding animal rights, discussing topics including plant agriculture, animal cognition, and in vitro meat. He documents the trend toward a new kind of omnivorism that justifies meat-eating within a framework of animal protection, and evaluates for the first time which forms of this new omnivorism can be ethically justified, providing crucial guidance for philosophers as well as researchers in culture and agriculture.

Introduction: the new animal debate
1. The case for animal protection
2. A view to a kill
3. Burger veganism
4. The dinner of double effect
5. Killing them softly
6. What is it like to be a chicken?
7. The logic of the larder
8. Thinking like a plant
9. Long live the new flesh.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]