why do vegans have to justify their diets and non vegans don’t?
Animal advocates are saying something like: “stop eating animals, it’s the right thing to do and it’s just as healthy if not healthier”. They need to justify the health claim because they’re the ones asking people to change their diets.
I agree that individual vegans don’t have to justify their diet to anyone, just like someone who personally chooses a low-FODMAP diet has nothing to justify.
Quibble: ‘asking for change’ is irrelevant, epistemically. We tend to assume that vegans giving accurate information about animal health will help their cause longer term—though given the number of vegan influencers, I don’t know how epistemically justified we are in thinking that.
I’d rephrase that, maybe. Whether we’re asking people to make a change doesn’t matter—that’s assigning an unearned privilege to old ideas. The reason we have to justify this claim is because it’s a claim. If you’re saying “I know vegetarianism is healthier,” you should be able to explain how you know that.
Animal advocates are saying something like: “stop eating animals, it’s the right thing to do and it’s just as healthy if not healthier”. They need to justify the health claim because they’re the ones asking people to change their diets.
I agree that individual vegans don’t have to justify their diet to anyone, just like someone who personally chooses a low-FODMAP diet has nothing to justify.
Quibble: ‘asking for change’ is irrelevant, epistemically. We tend to assume that vegans giving accurate information about animal health will help their cause longer term—though given the number of vegan influencers, I don’t know how epistemically justified we are in thinking that.
I’d rephrase that, maybe. Whether we’re asking people to make a change doesn’t matter—that’s assigning an unearned privilege to old ideas. The reason we have to justify this claim is because it’s a claim. If you’re saying “I know vegetarianism is healthier,” you should be able to explain how you know that.