What do you think about this?
- Is it morally acceptable to eat meat?
- When might it be acceptable? Why? What makes it morally OK to eat cows, cats or cockles?
- When is it wrong? Is it ever wrong? Why do you think that?
__________
References
Thursday, 17 June 2010
To eat or not to eat the beasts?
We've just started reading Stephen Law's dialogue "Carving the Roast Beast", in which his clearly stated main idea about the topic of eating meat is that it is morally wrong.
What do you think about this?
which we have also started on today (except that we didn't quite get there. I'm confident we will tomorrow.) It's a response writing exercise, so feel free to respond with whatever ideas you like on the topic, or even a bit off the topic. The questions I wrote above were just some prompts to hopefully get you thinking.
What do you think about this?
Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files (p.124 – 140). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
22 comments:
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ReplyDeleteI've ever been to South Affrica in my life. I can say that they eat everything. Some of their signature dish is very disgusting such as snake stake, wallaby grill with blake papper gravy, or even elephen meat in the can. Could you imagine how's such meal's taste? However, I disagree what Gemma said because some animals like pigs or chickens, their first priority is to be the delicious meal for us. So, who care for morally wrong?
ReplyDeletePS.If you go to the crocodie farm, don't forget to try crocodie grill. It's awesome!!! ;)
PS2. I missed click on my first comment; however, it's the same with this comment.
I should have reviewed what I've just posted. Many of wrong vocabularies and grammatically errors.
ReplyDelete-*-
I also disagree with Gemma's idea. Even if creature would not be able to enjoying life, many people around the world including me will have miserable life instead if they can not eat those poor creatures.
ReplyDeleteJUST EAT THEM ALL :P
Pat, by "all", do you mean elephants, cats, and monkeys, and all other animals, as well as the pigs, chickens, kangaroos and dogs that humans more commonly eat?
ReplyDelete1.It is good to eat meat because it give me a lot of protein and vitamin that can not find in vegetable. If you dose not eat some you will lack of nutrition. In children can lead to serious problem.
ReplyDelete2.It is very morally because God create them to be human food.
3.It can be wrong when you live in some religion which very strict in the rule that tell you can not eat some animal. If you do not follow, you will punished.
It is not right or wrong to eat meat. It's all about choice. We have right to choose what we want to do. I don't like Gemma 's views. She judges people based on her little experience. If she think that killing animal for food is morally wrong, so maybe, she should not use any product that has any part of animals in the ingredients as well. Maybe she just rushes to conclusion.
ReplyDeleteJoe,
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of gods. Which one created animals to be human food?
Your point 3 seems to contradict your point 2. Which one is right?
I disagree with Gemma's idea.
ReplyDeleteHas she ever thinked about value of life?
Vegetable(plants) also have life but they don't feel pain like animals.
Most important thing is people don't leave the foods on the dish and don't eat too much. And give thanks to animals, vegetables and Gods.
To live to eat or to eat to live. Is it sound confusing? If you know what I mean, Thanks, :D
ReplyDeleteMy point is if you can realize what the purpose to eat or not to eat something or even to have some weird animal, that is okey. However I don't like the idea about morally thing, it seem too naive to me to have a feeling like that. Anyway I read some book for a long time ago it told me that actually human is a plant eater not carnivore because of the teeth.
I don't that is wrong or right. But I sometimes vegetarian.
Yuko I like your idea "Most important thing is people don't leave the foods on the dish and don't eat too much. And give thanks to animals, vegetables and Gods." This is very true and all now we should think about it. if we want the world is better... ^ ^
ReplyDeleteIt is a controversial topic. I would say that I disagree with Gemma's idea, but in difference aspect.
ReplyDelete1. I would say that it is morally acceptable to eat meat, as the matter of fact human being is naturally a meat eater, our digestion system is not design to digest plant, and also our teeth structure. In some sense educated human failed to think of those fact.
2. It is acceptable in all occasion. Technically, human can eat every thing. Except the poison ones.
3. According to all of those facts above. I'd say it is never wrong to eat meat ever!
We are a state of the art creature created by the almighty God.
Be proud, and may the God be with you.
I think I know what you mean Nid. Eat for surviving or just live to eat...is that right?
ReplyDeleteQ: Is it morally acceptable to eat meat?
ReplyDeleteA: Before I answer this question, I deeply think what the definition of moral means. From my point of view, I have two meanings in my mind. First, it is kind of belief that belongs to the individual person related to experience, religion, culture (as you refer to the Quest), and etc as It can infer to Aristotle’s belief that the earth was the center of universe. The second one is opposite. I mean the earth is only just a member of the universe. Anyway, in the context, I think the first meaning is more appropriate, so my answer is yes and no. If I was Mr. Wilson, I would say yes. On the other hand, I would say no if I was Gemma. However, with reference to another meaning, we are also kind of meat, so is it morally acceptable to eat ourselves? Just doubt.
Q: When might it be acceptable? Why? What makes it morally OK to eat cows, cats or cockles?
A: I like the Pu’s answered that it was all about choices. If you choose to eat meat, then it will be acceptable no matter when, why and what animal. For example, If I were Gemma and I stuck in the island somehow where there are only animals, I would choose starvation instead of doing against my faith which means unacceptable in any cases, or I would eat meat for only this situation which is acceptable for this time.
Q: When is it wrong? Is it ever wrong? Why do you think that?
A: See above my two answers.
We have a right to choose what we want to eat.
ReplyDeletePersonally, if we kill animals only for our own sake it definitely should be morally wrong.We can eat every kind of meat, no matter what animals are, but should not be based on our satisfactions. Eating animal for continue living, it will be a good way we show our respect to the death animals.
I do agree with Yuko.
Both animals and plants are likely the same except plants cannot cry.We can eat vegetable without justification, so why we cannot eat meat.
I will not take any side on the topic because it is sensitive and depends on individual's attitude, believes and also religion.But after I had read the story, some feeling popped up in my mind. Most of the times, human makes their own rule. We do some certain things for particular occasions with no good explanation. Like Christmas dinner in UK, why we have to eat a turkey as a symbol of human's pleasure.Is it actually relevant. This turn to be a tradition with irrationality. We are so privileged, don't you think so?
ReplyDeleteP.S. maybe turkeys have omega-3 so they are very popular.
I quite like and agree with the opinion "it's all about choice" (thanks Pu for use this sentence :) ). Moreover, it is morally or not, depends on many factors, contexts and important question "whose moral?".
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure whether it is morally wrong or not to eat meat. But I agree with Nid that it is acceptable as long as we realize the purpose of our eating.
Gemma has some points but I disagree with her because vegetables are alive also. I think there are no differences between vegetables and meat.
ReplyDeleteWe should give our thanks for god and nature when we eat.
My idea is the exactly same as Yuko's.
I also thought that Pu made an interesting comment.
ReplyDeletePu,
Do you just dislike Gemma's views, or do you think that they are wrong? When you write that "we have right to choose what we want to do," it sounds like you mean it is morally OK to make that choice. Is that what you meant?
And Book asked a good question: "is it morally acceptable to eat [human beings]?"
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the good ideas so far. They should (not a moral should, it means "referring to a possible event or situation" (Concise OED)) provide useful preparation for the weekend reading.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to add more comments.
And now that we've all read Law's short essay, perhaps the meat eaters would like to explain why he is wrong.
ReplyDeleteOr is he right?
In case you're wondering, I eat meat and I don't think it's morally wrong, but just because I, or anyone else, say that isn't a very good reason to say that Law is wrong. In fact, Law himself eats meat, or at least used to, though not without some concern (2004. Should you be eating that? In The Philosophy Gym, p.229 - 240. London: Headline Review.)
As he notes, philosophy is not without risk.