I feel like eating meat but not being willing to torture animals is the best and most common example of facilitating evil that you wouldn’t directly perform purely because of your distance from it.
Probably the most famous example of this is illustrated by Peter Singer:
To challenge my students to think about the ethics of what we owe to people in need, I ask them to imagine that their route to the university takes them past a shallow pond. One morning, I say to them, you notice a child has fallen in and appears to be drowning. To wade in and pull the child out would be easy but it will mean that you get your clothes wet and muddy, and by the time you go home and change you will have missed your first class.
I then ask the students: do you have any obligation to rescue the child?
Now, you can bite the bullet and say “Oh, a Nigerian child? No way, their lives are valueless!” And indeed, Peter doesn’t have an answer for that. But most people don’t give that answer, rather they gesture at distance, uncertainty, and the fact that the task is seemingly intractable. By removing that distance we make the dilemma salient.
In short, this isn’t directed at people who are certain that chickens (or Nigerians) don’t have moral worth. It’s aimed at the majority that would never torture an animal but gladly feast on tortured animals.
I mean, I see these as totally different things (preventing suffering in Nigeria—well, and other third-world countries—is why I’m here), but that’s probably moving outside the question as posed. I wouldn’t be willing to be a butcher, but that’s squeamishness, not a moral decision; I wouldn’t want to be a plumber, either.
But… actually no I think I’m going to move my actual advice to the ‘do you have recommendations’ thread just above. See you there!
I feel like eating meat but not being willing to torture animals is the best and most common example of facilitating evil that you wouldn’t directly perform purely because of your distance from it.
Probably the most famous example of this is illustrated by Peter Singer:
Now, you can bite the bullet and say “Oh, a Nigerian child? No way, their lives are valueless!” And indeed, Peter doesn’t have an answer for that. But most people don’t give that answer, rather they gesture at distance, uncertainty, and the fact that the task is seemingly intractable. By removing that distance we make the dilemma salient.
In short, this isn’t directed at people who are certain that chickens (or Nigerians) don’t have moral worth. It’s aimed at the majority that would never torture an animal but gladly feast on tortured animals.
I mean, I see these as totally different things (preventing suffering in Nigeria—well, and other third-world countries—is why I’m here), but that’s probably moving outside the question as posed. I wouldn’t be willing to be a butcher, but that’s squeamishness, not a moral decision; I wouldn’t want to be a plumber, either.
But… actually no I think I’m going to move my actual advice to the ‘do you have recommendations’ thread just above. See you there!