Cora Diamond Reading

One of the readings this week was Cora Diamond's essay: "Eating Meat and Eating People". It was not a quick read by any means but it was worth it to read the whole thing with all the interesting points she made. She is vegetarian herself and she doesn't find Peter Singer's arguments/reasoning compelling for people to become vegetarians.

Her main idea is that we shouldn't eat meat on the grounds that we wouldn't eat a person. I know, it sounds strange and ridiculous. Numerous times throughout the essay, she points out that we use language to separate ourselves from animals, when the reality is that we too are animals. She says it best when she says: "In the case of the difference between animals and people, it is clear that we form the idea of this difference, create the concept of the difference, knowing perfectly well the overwhelmingly obvious similarities" (98). What it comes down to for Cora Diamond is that: "what is appropriate treatment for members of our species would be appropriate to members of any whose capacities gave them similar interests. We are all equally animals..." (102).

"... animals as our fellows in mortality, in life on this earth" (102).

This reading has given me a lot to think about and a completely different perspective on vegetarianism.