Theo
Active Member
Animal Rights hero Peter Singer is asked about this topic in a new Bloggingheads at this link.
As I've said before, I find it difficult to find anything morally wrong with eating fish, as I don't believe fish think or feel. I don't draw the line there. I eat lots of poutry, for example, though I find things become more morally problematic with birds than with fish (especially since I love birds -- I spend a lot of time with my bird feeders!). I also occasionally eat cows, though not much. I treat steak as a rare indulgence. I am a speciesist and a somewhat restrained carnivore, and I find arguments against eating/killing animals much more persuasive when we're talking about animals that I consider "higher" species -- animals that can think and feel to a greater degree (I definitely draw the line around the pig). Fish? I don't really worry about fish. And I think Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, wins this exchange with Peter Singer on the topic of eating fish.
What do you think?
I also noticed the thread about spiders. I happen to find spiders cool and try and avoid harming them as much as possible. But I'm not so kind to some other insects. For example, what do you do when spring hits and you find a bunch of those really tiny ants spurting out all over, say, your bathroom or kitchen? They're too small and numerous to snatch and place gently outdoors. Seems to me you kinda have to kill kill kill. I used RAID when this happened last week and it ended the problem real quick. I didn't feel bad. Was I really supposed to try and save the lives of all these teensy ants?
More generally, I figured there are some Peter Singer fans here, who might wanna play the entire diavlog which goes beyond the fish topic. Even more generally, Bloggingheads is a cool sit with lots of interesting diavlogs, IMO.
As I've said before, I find it difficult to find anything morally wrong with eating fish, as I don't believe fish think or feel. I don't draw the line there. I eat lots of poutry, for example, though I find things become more morally problematic with birds than with fish (especially since I love birds -- I spend a lot of time with my bird feeders!). I also occasionally eat cows, though not much. I treat steak as a rare indulgence. I am a speciesist and a somewhat restrained carnivore, and I find arguments against eating/killing animals much more persuasive when we're talking about animals that I consider "higher" species -- animals that can think and feel to a greater degree (I definitely draw the line around the pig). Fish? I don't really worry about fish. And I think Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, wins this exchange with Peter Singer on the topic of eating fish.
What do you think?
I also noticed the thread about spiders. I happen to find spiders cool and try and avoid harming them as much as possible. But I'm not so kind to some other insects. For example, what do you do when spring hits and you find a bunch of those really tiny ants spurting out all over, say, your bathroom or kitchen? They're too small and numerous to snatch and place gently outdoors. Seems to me you kinda have to kill kill kill. I used RAID when this happened last week and it ended the problem real quick. I didn't feel bad. Was I really supposed to try and save the lives of all these teensy ants?
More generally, I figured there are some Peter Singer fans here, who might wanna play the entire diavlog which goes beyond the fish topic. Even more generally, Bloggingheads is a cool sit with lots of interesting diavlogs, IMO.
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