Where philosophy meets the real world (with Peter Singer)
1. Expand Moral Circle to All Sentient Beings
Consciously broaden your moral concern beyond humans to include all beings capable of feeling pleasure or pain, giving equal consideration to their similar interests, such as avoiding suffering.
2. Adopt Consequentialist Ethical Framework
Base your ethical decisions on the consequences of actions, prioritizing the well-being of all sentient creatures by minimizing pain and misery while maximizing pleasure and happiness, rather than adhering to rigid rules.
3. Critically Examine Moral Intuitions
Use evolutionary explanations to critically examine and potentially debunk moral intuitions that may have evolved for survival but do not necessarily align with objective moral truths, such as egoism, to arrive at more rational ethical stances.
4. Prioritize Animal Suffering Over Reason
When considering the ethics of animal treatment, focus on whether animals can suffer, rather than their capacity for reason or language, as suffering is the crucial moral consideration.
5. Acknowledge Scale of Animal Suffering
Recognize the staggering scale of suffering in factory farming, where billions of animals endure miserable lives and painful deaths, such as chickens dying from collapsed legs or starvation, to inform your dietary choices.
6. Confront Cognitive Dissonance
Actively seek information about animal suffering in factory farming and confront the cognitive dissonance that arises when your actions (eating meat) conflict with your values (not wanting to harm animals), rather than avoiding uncomfortable truths.
7. Align Diet with Ethical Values
Change your diet to align your actions with your ethical values regarding animal welfare, as this can be a satisfying experience that encourages exploring diverse cuisines.
8. Understand Specific Animal Cruelties
Educate yourself on the specific cruelties of factory farming, such as the confinement of laying hens, the starvation of breeding animals, and the conditions of broiler chickens, to make informed ethical choices.
9. Critically Evaluate Meat Industry Claims
Be skeptical of marketing and propaganda from the meat industry that portrays animals as being treated humanely, as these messages often enable consumers to act against their own values regarding animal welfare.
10. Support Animal Welfare Referenda
Where possible, support and vote for referenda and political initiatives that aim to improve the living conditions and reduce the suffering of farmed animals, as public support for such measures is high when informed.
11. Re-evaluate Meat Choices for Suffering
Understand that switching from beef to chicken or fish often increases overall animal suffering due to the larger number of individual animals killed and the typically worse conditions for chickens and fish.
12. Choose High-Welfare Eggs
If not fully vegan, opt for free-range eggs from hens with genuinely low stocking densities (e.g., 200 hens per hectare) and outdoor access, acknowledging that this still involves the killing of hens and male chicks.
13. Reduce Dairy Consumption
Be aware that standard dairy production involves separating calves from their mothers, causing distress; consider switching to readily available and improving plant-based milk alternatives.
14. Speak Truth, Embrace Controversy
As a philosopher or ethical individual, articulate what you believe to be true, even if it is controversial or elicits strong opposition, rather than shying away from the implications of your views.
15. Consider Moral Uncertainty
While having strong ethical convictions, acknowledge the possibility of being wrong about your moral theory and consider how this uncertainty might influence your decisions, especially concerning potentially negative consequences.
16. Support Genetic Engineering for Happiness
Advocate for and support the genetic engineering of humans to reduce suffering and increase happiness, as this aligns with the goal of maximizing well-being.
17. Prioritize High-Confidence Impact
When addressing global priorities like extinction risks, prioritize actions with a higher confidence of positive impact, such as reducing animal suffering or extreme poverty, over highly speculative interventions.
18. Counter the Bystander Effect
To combat the bystander effect, be the first to act or speak up in a crisis, as others often take social cues from those around them; for systemic issues like abuse, seek power in numbers and coordinate with others to challenge high-status individuals.