“
Fourth, all of the philosophical/legal writing that I have done over
the past 20+ years relies on an expansion of the liberal doctrine of
equality. My work does not presuppose any religious or spiritual belief
or require any such beliefs to come to the conclusion that we have no
moral justification for exploiting nonhuman animals. My work relies on
reason and rational argument. But there are many reasonable and
intelligent people who do not agree with my view and yet have no
substantive response to my arguments. I suppose that what separates
us—and what caused me to become interested in animal ethics in the
1980s—is the sense of kinship that I feel with nonhuman animals. And I
would suspect that this sense of kinship was and is related to my
longstanding acceptance of Ahimsa, or the principle of nonviolence, as
my foundational spiritual belief.
Well I could agree, but ...
Well I could agree, but I like my steak...