Ethical Veganism, Virtue Ethics, and the Great Soul

Millions of animals are brought into existence and raised for food every year, a practice that has generated three serious problems. First, intensive animal farming is one of the leading causes of environmental degradation: farming livestock adds a large amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year, and it contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, coral reef degeneration, and deforestation. Second, raising animals for food causes millions of animals to suffer and be killed. And third, consumption of meat and animal products is linked with heart disease, diabetes, and various cancers. A global change in the way that animals are treated is imperative. Many moral philosophers have suggested a move toward vegetarianism. But vegetarianism, unfortunately, still relies on raising animals for food and does not avoid the deleterious effects of animal products on human health. In Ethical Veganism, Virtue Ethics, and the Great Soul, Carlo Alvaro argues that the right solution is ethical veganism, which entails avoiding all animal products and byproducts. Some moral philosophers have framed ethical veganism in terms of animals having the same fundamental rights as humans, but the view that animals have rights is not capable of generating the moral duty to embrace ethical veganism. Alvaro's answer is to adopt a virtue-oriented approach to the treatment of animals because the acquisition of virtues--such as compassion, magnanimity, temperance, and fairness--enables people to recognize that raising and using animals for food is unfair, callous, and self-indulgent.