#MeatToo
The most efficient food system would have much less animal farming than we currently have, but it would have significantly more than none.
ReadWhen the latest would-be Einstein announces yet another theory, my eyes start to glaze over in anticipation of drivel and disappointment. Neuroscientist Anil Seth’s “Being You” is the exception that proves the rule. If you only read one book about consciousness, it must be his.
ReadThe vast majority of humankind errs in opposite directions. Most fail to respect animal sentience at all, treating livestock like meat machines. A growing minority, however, think of animals as though they were cuddly versions of ourselves – creatures who deserve a long life and for whom death at anything other than an old age is a tragedy rather than a common fact of life. They are in denial, like the vegan cat-lover who refuses their companion animal meat. To love a cat and yet not accept the way it naturally lives is not to truly love it at all, but simply to adore a sentimentalised, sanitised version of it.
ReadFor all his clear thinking, Pinker still doesn’t quite understand how ambiguity and uncertainty, as well as illogicality and cognitive biases, limit the reach of rationality.
ReadReview of Kathleen Stock’s new book for The Philosophers’ Magazine.
Read