•  2741
    Ethical Veganism, Virtue, and Greatness of the Soul
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 30 (6): 765-781. 2017.
    Many moral philosophers have criticized intensive animal farming because it can be harmful to the environment, it causes pain and misery to a large number of animals, and furthermore eating meat and animal-based products can be unhealthful. The issue of industrially farmed animals has become one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. On the one hand, utilitarians have argued that we should become vegetarians or vegans because the practices of raising animals for food are immoral sin…Read more
  •  2180
    Lab‐Grown Meat and Veganism: A Virtue‐Oriented Perspective
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (135): 1-15. 2019.
    The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feed- ing a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only in terms of the best co…Read more
  •  1760
    The Incoherence of Moral Relativism
    Cultura 17 (1): 19-38. 2020.
    Abstract: This paper is a response to Park Seungbae’s article, “Defence of Cultural Relativism”. Some of the typical criticisms of moral relativism are the following: moral relativism is erroneously committed to the principle of tolerance, which is a universal principle; there are a number of objective moral rules; a moral relativist must admit that Hitler was right, which is absurd; a moral relativist must deny, in the face of evidence, that moral progress is possible; and, since every individu…Read more
  •  816
    Vegan parents and children: zero parental compromise
    Ethics and Education 15 (4): 476-498. 2020.
    Marcus William Hunt argues that when co-parents disagree over whether to raise their child (or children) as a vegan, they should reach a compromise as a gift given by one parent to the other out of respect for his or her authority. Josh Millburn contends that Hunt’s proposal of parental compromise over veganism is unacceptable on the ground that it overlooks respect for animal rights, which bars compromising. However, he contemplates the possibility of parental compromise over ‘unusual e…Read more
  •  710
    Explicit atheism is a philosophical position according to which belief in God is irrational, and thus it should be rejected. In this paper, I revisit, extend, and defend against the most telling counter arguments the Kalām Cosmological Argument in order to show that explicit atheism must be deemed as a positively irrational position.
  •  437
    Veganism as a Virtue: How compassion and fairness show us what is virtuous about veganism
    Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society 5 (2): 16-26. 2017.
    With millions of animals brought into existence and raised for food every year, their negative impact upon the environment and the staggering growth in the number of chronic diseases caused by meat and dairy diets make a global move toward ethical veganism imperative. Typi-cally, utilitarians and deontologists have led this discussion. The purpose of this paper is to pro-pose a virtuous approach to ethical veganism. Virtue ethics can be used to construct a defense of ethical veganism by relying …Read more
  •  432
    Missing the Apes of the Trees for the Forest
    ASEBL Journal Association for the Study of Ethical Behavior 14 (1): 36-38. 2019.
    The debate over ape personhood is of great social and moral importance. For more than twenty-five years, attorney Steven Wise has been arguing that animals who have cognitive complexities similar to humans should be legally granted basic rights of au- tonomy. In my view, granting personhood status and other rights to great apes are at- tainable goals. But how should we go about it?
  •  257
    God and Kant’s Suicide Maxim
    Cultura 2 (18): 27-53. 2021.
    Kant’s argument against suicide is widely dismissed by scholars and often avoided by teachers because it is deemed inconsistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. This paper attempts to show a way to make sense of Kant’s injunction against suicide that is consistent with his moral system. One of the strategies adopted in order to accomplish my goal is a de-secularization of Kant’s ethics. I argue that all actions of self-killing (or suicide) are morally impermissible because they are inconsistent wit…Read more
  •  159
    MEAT MAY NEVER DIE
    TRACE 8 156-163. 2022.
    The goal of ethical veganism is a vegan world or, at least, a significantly vegan world. However, despite the hard work done by vegan activists, global meat consumption has been increasing (Saiidi 2019; Christen 2021). Vegan advocates have focused on ethics but have ignored the importance of tradition and identity. And the advent of veggie meat alternatives has promoted food that emulates animal products thereby perpetuating the meat paradigm. I suggest that, in order to make significant changes…Read more
  •  71
    The Evil God Challenge: Two Significant Asymmetries
    Heythrop Journal 63 (5): 869-885. 2022.
    The Heythrop Journal, Volume 63, Issue 5, Page 869-885, September 2022.
  •  62
    Is Animal Suffering Really All That Matters? The Move from Suffering to Vegetarianism
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 32 (4): 633-645. 2019.
    The animal liberation movement, among other goals, seeks an end to the use of animals for food. The philosophers who started the movement agree on the goal but differ in their approach: deontologists argue that rearing animals for food infringes animals’ inherent right to life. Utilitarians claim that ending the use of animals for food will result in the maximization of utility. Virtue-oriented theorists argue that using animals for food is callus, self-indulgent, and unjust, in short, it’s an u…Read more
  •  59
    Veganism and Children: A Response to Marcus William Hunt
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 32 (4): 647-661. 2019.
    In this paper I respond to Marcus William Hunt’s argument that vegan parents have pro tanto reasons for not raising their children on a vegan diet because such a diet is potentially harmful to children’s physical and social well-being. In my rebuttal, first I show that in practice all vegan diets, with the exception of wacky diets, are beneficial to children’s well-being ; and that all animal-based diets are potentially unhealthful. Second, I show that vegan children are no more socially outcast…Read more
  •  53
    Lab-Grown Meat and Veganism: A Virtue-Oriented Perspective
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 32 (1): 127-141. 2019.
    The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feeding a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only in terms of the best cons…Read more
  •  52
    Human beings are getting fatter and sicker. As we question what we eat and why we eat it, this book argues that living well involves consuming a raw vegan diet. With eating healthfully and eating ethically being simpler said than done, this book argues that the best solution to health, environmental, and ethical problems concerning animals is raw veganism―the human diet. The human diet is what humans are naturally designed to eat, and that is, a raw vegan diet of fruit, tender leafy greens, and…Read more
  •  51
    It is often claimed that belief in God is based on faith, while non-belief is grounded in rationality. This claim is inaccurate. Moral philosopher Carlo Alvaro takes the reader through his philosophical journey—a journey taken with the absolute absence of faith. Through reasoning alone, and with an objective assessment of the classical theistic arguments, Deism takes the reader from disbelief to a particular version of deism. Deism discusses such arguments as the Kalam Cosmological, the asymmetr…Read more
  •  49
    Ethical veganism is the view that raising animals for food is an immoral practice that must be stopped because of the harm it causes to the animals, the environment, and our health. Carlo Alvaro argues the only way to stop that harm is to acquire the virtues that enable us to act justly and benevolently toward animals.
  •  17
    The Evil God Challenge: Two Significant Asymmetries
    Heythrop Journal 63 (5): 869-885. 2022.
    The Heythrop Journal, Volume 63, Issue 5, Page 869-885, September 2022.
  •  14
    Ethical Subjectivism: A Lost Cause
    Filosofija. Sociologija 34 (3). 2023.
    Individual relativism, also known as ethical subjectivism, is an attractive theory about morality. It argues that morality is a matter relative to the individual in a way akin to personal taste. For example, subjectivists regard the ethical judgment ‘Stealing is wrong’ as comparable with the judgment of taste ‘I dislike Brussels sprouts’. Yet, subjectivism is not nihilism. While nihilism denies the existence of moral value, duties, principles and truths, subjectivism claims that they exist, but …Read more
  •  8
    God and Kant’s Suicide Maxim
    Cultura 18 (2): 27-53. 2021.
    Kant’s argument against suicide is widely dismissed by scholars and often avoided by teachers because it is deemed inconsistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. This paper attempts to show a way to make sense of Kant’s injunction against suicide that is consistent with his moral system. One of the strategies adopted in order to accomplish my goal is a de-secularization of Kant’s ethics. I argue that all actions of self-killing are morally impermissible because they are inconsistent with God’s estab…Read more