Going Veg: Care of the Animals or Care of the Self?
Going Veg: Care of the Animals or Care of the Self?

Summary/Abstract: Theories of the mainstream of animal ethics, represented, for example by Singer and Regan, are in favour of dietary behaviours that exclude the consumption of any animal products. According to such approaches to the subject, in our societies and in current living conditions, abandoning food of animal origin is an obligation in the light of the normative requirements of the theory of ethics. In this article, I will present a different perspective on the issue of reflective moral vegetarianism (defined in a very broad sense). Moving from some very critical phrasing to the arguments represented by the mainstream, I will propose the statement that it is more purposeful to consider vegetarianism as an element of self-development and self-care practiced by people who are honest active moral entities. Vegetarianism that grows out of personal reflections on the morality of relations between people and other beings, should be considered in the way in which active moral entities shape and cultivate their own character. Such a way of formulating vegetarianism makes it possible to avoid the problems of the mainstream arguments and allows conceiving more accurately the richness and diversity of people’s real choices concerning the issue of vegetarianism in the sphere of customary experiences of moral character.

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