Response to Shelby, "Killing Animals and The Bible"

"So, my question is: does it matter from whence an ethic comes, if the ethic is correct?"

I think that it matters a lot. A person who is a vegetarian for ethical reasons, and a person who just doesn't eat meat because he or she doesn't like the taste of it probably won't have much in common. There are so many different paths that can lead to the right thing; what really matters is why somebody is doing (or trying to do) the right thing. I actually believe the opposite of what Shelby is saying; I think that a person's intentions matter more than the actual outcome. In other words, the ends do not always justify the means but the means might justify the ends. For example, somebody who is committed to the ethical treatment of animals, and tries really hard to be a vegan but slips up every once in a while is doing a better job of being a moral person than somebody who doesn't care about animal rights, but always refrains from eating animal products for other reasons (religion, health, personal preference).

Response to Hallie, "The Yuck Factor"

Hallie wrote that the "yuck factor" of animal experimentation, as well as examples brought up in class such as pedophilia and incest, is not enough to justify deeming it immoral. She says that, in the cases of pedophilia and incest, there may be a "yuck factor" because we have been socialized to view them as wrong, but they can also be proven immoral on more rational grounds. I think that pedophilia can be proven to be immoral, because it involves children who cannot consent, but incest between consenting adults does not seem to harm anyone, and I am not sure why we are morally opposed to it. As I brought up in class, there is the fact that children conceived through incest are more likely to have deformities, but that is not the only reason we don't like it. There is just something about incest that makes people feel uncomfortable. Hallie brings up the example of homosexuality, which I think is a good example of the "yuck factor". Many people would probably describe homosexuality the way I described incest; "there's just something about it that seems so wrong". "It's so unnatural". I agree with Hallie that these vague feelings of discomfort are not enough to deem something immoral. However, in that case I do not see why incest is illegal (and considered immoral). Does anybody have a good defense for the widely held claim that incest is immoral that doesn't involve the "yuck factor"?