Food Ethics is an emerging course area in many academic departments for good reason. Students are interested in the issues and confront them to some degree several times a day. There is a growing realization that food ethics are at core of many other critical environmental issues, including climate change, population and migration, appropriate technology, development and capitalism, as well as pollution. This anthology includes twenty-one readings designed to provide a basic reader for a Food Ethics class or to act as an academic companion text along side one of the many mass market titles addressing these issues.
The readings cover issues such as genetically modified foods, animal rights, population and consumption, pollution, centralized versus local production, vegetarianism and more. Introductions and study questions help students to prepare for reflection and discussion on these significant and noteworthy issues.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.
- Food Ethics.
2. ANIMAL RIGHTS.
- Rational Beings Alone Have Moral Worth.
- Kant’s Treatment of Animals.
- A Utilitarian Defense of Animal Liberation.
- The Radical Egalitarian Case for Animal Rights.
- A Critique of Regan’s Rights Theory.
3. POPULATION AND CONSUMPTION.
- A Special Moment in History: The Challenge of Overpopulation and Overconsumption.
- The Tragedy of the Commons.
- The Unjust War against Population.
- Lifeboat Ethics.
- Population and Food: A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics.
4. POLLUTION: SOIL, AIR, WATER.
- You Are What You Breathe.
- We All Live in Bhopal.
- People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution.
- Is Silent Spring Beyond Us?
5. FOOD ETHICS.
- Hunger, Duty and Ecology: On What We Owe Starving Human Beings
- The World Food Supply: The Damage Done by Cattle-Raising Michael Fox, Vegetarianism and Planetary Health.
- Can food Save the Planet?
- Unholy Alliance: Critiques of Genetically Modified Foods.
- The ETC Report, The Poor can Feed Themselves.
Key Features
- The text begins with an introduction to the emerging discipline of food ethics, followed by twenty topical readings by diverse voices.
- Chapter introductions establish a framework for the readings and focus the students' engagements with them, while brief introductions to each reading provide background material on the social context of the readings and biographical information on the authors, as well as information on the key issues to consider within the reading.
- Study questions at the end of each reading help promote discussion and reflection, while suggestions for further reading encourage students to pursue additional enquiry on topics of interest.
About the Authors
- Paul Pojman completed his Ph. D. at Indiana University, in the department of History and Philosophy of Science. He is currently Assistant Professor at Towson University in the Philosophy Department, and Associated Faculty with the Environmental Studies and Science Programs.
- Louis P. Pojman (1935-2005) was Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at the United States Military Academy and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and a Rockefeller Fellow at Hamburg University. He received his D.Phil. in Philosophy from Oxford University in 1997.His first position was at the University of Notre Dame, after which he taught at the University of Texas at Dallas. Later, at the University of Mississippi, he served for three years as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. In 1995, he became Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He most recently was Visiting Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Oxford University. Pojman won several research and teaching awards, including the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship (1988) and the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher in the Humanities at the University of Mississippi (1994). He wrote in the areas of philosophy of religion, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy and authored or edited more than 30 books and 100 articles. Pojman passed away in 2005.
Book Details
- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 1 edition (© 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1111772304
- ISBN-13: 978-1111772307
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.3 inches
List Price: $30.95