A Vegetarian Philosophy by Peter Singer

[Deep Singh]

Peter Singer's Article

What do you guys think? I have read some of Peter Singer's articles and they have some good points.

Does this fit into Gurmat thinking about meat etc? Remember his philosophy is Vegan-based, ie take nothing from animals! we use milk etc

ps. sorry, admins. this is not directly Sikh philosophy, but i think it doesn't fit in any other thread.

[Guest JSS]

I studied Singer's arguments before for an environmental ethics...

he's not extremely convincing, although it is a fairly good argument...

he comes from a rights based perspective, saying that all animals have equal rights...

he is very utilitarian, meaning he believes we should do actions that will do the greatest the good, ie. preserve the most number of individual's rights regardless of species...

his view is very narrow, it allows for no things such as "feelings" to enter the equation....which is what weakens his argument.....

cuz people aren't prepared to give a cow the same amount of Rights as they will accord to their mother or father...hence conflict...

if you're looking for other philosophical approaches to vegetarianism, i'd suggest you read Paul Taylor's Essay called Respect for Nature....it's a really cool piece, where man/woman is not separate from nature, but an integrated member of a community of different species. His perspective is called the biocentric perspective...i found this MORE convincing as an argument for vegetarianism...

[Deep Singh]

Oh thanks!

I understand what you mean. As his views on abortion...it is the feelings thing.

I had philosophy this semester, so Singer was one of those guys in it..

[ramnik]

ssa friends, i am really confused regarding vegetarianism, one one side we are told only not to eat halal and then we should be vegetarians, please show me the right path friends as i am absoulutely illiterate i havnt got the knowledge of guru granth sahib ji.

[Akaal Purakh Di Fauj]

We dont want to turn this into a meat eating debate as it is against the rules of this forum. However, Ram Veerji - click on the link below to learn more about why sikhs are NOT MEANT TO EAT FLESH:

http://www.akj.org.uk/literature/article.a...gurmat&f=srm04a