When we consider the factors that explain why some people become vegan but not others, or why some find it easier to make the switch than others, one factor that is sometimes overlooked is personality. Vegan activists and campaigners might point to a range of psychological factors that get in the way of people adopting…
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One of the most common responses to vegans who eat fake meat is a charge of hypocrisy: Why would vegans, who oppose eating slaughtered animals, want to eat realistic fake meat? Would this not be comparable to creating fake or simulated versions of other harmful products or actions? For example, we might view someone who…
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The intersection between philosophy and mental health is a broad topic, and in one essay I gave some examples of how certain philosophical positions may impact mental health, as well as emphasised that this line of causality – adopting a worldview and then becoming depressed – is not so easy to establish (the direction of…
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Blaise Pascal (1623-62) was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and Catholic theologian. One of his most influential contributions to the philosophy of religion is a philosophical argument known as Pascal’s wager. This idea was published posthumously in Pascal’s Pensées (“Thoughts”). This post will describe how Pascal’s wager can be usefully applied to animal ethics, namely,…
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Many antinatalists embrace veganism, as they find these lifestyle decisions to be ethically consonant with each other. Yet most ethical vegans are not against having children. Whether one position entails the other depends on the particular ethic at play: If the goal is to prevent and minimise suffering, then does this not entail antinatalism? This…
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