A virtue ethics approach to veganism

2022-11-19

Most contemporary discussions about ethics I see assume either utilitarianism or deontology. As the briefest possible recap those are:

• Utilitarianism: One must do the thing that maximises utility. Utility is... (could be defined as happiness, the meeting of desires, being alive, etc.)
• Deontology: The are certain rules that one must never violate. Those rules are... (could be e.g. do not kill).

Arguments assuming these frameworks then centre around the questions of what utility should be defined as or what rules to follow. Or more usually, one person tries to find out what rules/utility another person is using and then tries to find a contradiction.

In personal experience however I found that this approach is mostly a dead end. It's perfectly possible to convince someone to change their mind in theory (e.g. to agree that veganism is right), but I've almost never seen this translate automatically into behavioural change. I think part of the problem is that neither utilitarianism or deontology actually give you a reason to follow their dictates – you can just say "I'm bad, I guess".

In thinking about these things (e.g. the kinds of things that actually morally motivate people), I have been slowly drawn to virtue ethics over the years. I think it may be applicable to veganism in a fruitful way.

Virtue ethics primer

So what is virtue ethics? Essentially it's a philosophy which says in order to have a fulfilling life you need to be moral – that is simply the kind of creature a human is. To be completely self-serving may be nice in the short term, but in the long run it's actually self-defeating. Rather, a life in which you're courageous, kind, prudent, etc. is better for you. That often means joy, but it can also be something else, like the satisfaction of going to bed after a long hard day.

That's not to say a moral person will always be better off, but just that they usually will be (which is why virtue ethics often seems to fall apart in the abstract unrealistic scenarios we like throw at morality). A pithy summary of this idea could be:

Morality is to the soul what health is to the body.

The second major piece of virtue ethics is the idea that acting morally is a habit. It's is something you can only attain through practice. And just like how someone who doesn't exercise can't wake up one day and run a marathon, a person that doesn't practice moral behaviour will buckle when circumstances truly test them.

Because of this virtue ethics is concerned with the cultivation of a good character. That turns every moral dilemma into a training exercise: something you can use to get more practice in at being moral.

Back to veganism

So, how might we apply this to veganism? The steps may look like the following.

• First we find common ground with our interlocutor and agree on at least one character trait which is a virtue (i.e. promotes human flourishing in some way). We might take e.g. kindness, the trait of not being cruel or callous.
• It seems clear that a person that deliberately harms animals for minor gain is callous – which is to say veganism is the kind thing to do. (A utilitarian or deontological argument would end here.)
• If veganism is the kind thing to do, then it's is a powerful opportunity to practice kindness.
• It is in the interlocutor's interest to practice such things, as doing so will, in the long run, make them are more fulfilled person.

One thing I like about virtue ethics is I think it more closely reflects the practical realities of morality. In real life, it's not often that we encounter a situation where it's generally unclear what path is moral. More often we know what is right, but we need to summon the courage to do it.

It seems to me that compared to the other two approaches, virtue ethics certainly has the upper hand in answering that part of the problem.