#396 Jeff McMahan: Killing in War, and the Ethics of Veganism
RECORDED ON OCTOBER 5th 2020.
Dr. Jeff McMahan is White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He specializes in Practical Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Ethics. He’s the author of books like The Morality of Nationalism, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life, and Killing in War.
In this episode, we focus on the killing in war, and the ethics of vegetarianism/veganism. About killing in ward, we address questions like what is a just and an unjust war, the circumstances where soldiers are morally justified to kill other soldiers, excusable conditions for participating in war, when civilians might be liable to being targeted by soldiers, coercion, and teaching moral philosophy to soldiers. In the second part, we discuss the ethics of vegetarianism, and we go through different objections to it, like the pleasure we derive from eating meat, the possibility of the extinction of farm animals, and raising animals in a humane way. We also talk about eating already dead animals, cannibalism, and lab-grown meat.
Time Links:
Killing in war
Just and unjust wars
Self-defense
Excuses
Civilians
Coercion
Teaching moral philosophy to soldiers
The ethics of vegetarianism/veganism
What if a vegan diet if bad for our health?
The pleasure of eating meat
What if farm animals would go extinct?
Can we eat animals that have already been killed or died natural deaths?
Cannibalism
Lab-grown meat
Does veganism derive from a utilitarian ethic?
Follow Dr. McMahan’s work!
Follow Dr. McMahan’s work:
Faculty Page: http://bit.ly/367MzFG
PhilPeople page: http://bit.ly/2GjzJbE
Personal website: http://bit.ly/36atClp
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2MNC1Ud
Killing in War: https://amzn.to/36re5gj