ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys some moral approaches that have been used to justify ethical vegetarianism and veganism, particularly utilitarian and deontological argument. I do not intend, nor do I have the space here, to refute those arguments. It has already been done many times, and successfully I may add. What I want to accomplish in this chapter is to suggest that ultimately such arguments are unconvincing. The problem is that, at best, these arguments work at the theoretical level, and consequently may convince other academics, though even academics remain unconvinced about the strength of such arguments. The point of veganism, in any case, is not to win academic debates, but rather to make people realize that animals are not human food. Thus, after discussing the ineffectiveness at a practical level of adopting some leading moral approaches to justify ethical veganism, I propose that a virtue-oriented approach is more conducive to embracing veganism.
