Mark Bernstein: 74 Billion

This week we welcome the Joyce & Edward E. Brewer Chair in Applied Ethics in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University, Dr. Mark Bernstein. Dr. Bernstein tells us the story of how he went from being an undergrad math major to being a metaphysician as a grad student and early in his professional career to ultimately being an expert in animal ethics. We then discuss the moment in his life in which he became a vegetarian, his intuitive sense that the moral status of animals was a worthy philosophical pursuit, the principle of gratuitous suffering which he has developed, the moral status of meat eaters, vegetarianism vis-à-vis environmental sustainability, the causal impotence argument and our complicity in the meat industry and in harm to animals generally, and the astonishing number of animals consumed annually worldwide. The numbers are staggering. This episode also features a line from Paul Simon, a reference to Bruce Springsteen and several mentions of Steely Dan...and of Queens College! Note: There is some volume discrepancy during the first 2 minutes or so of the interview. After that, the volume for both mics evens out. Sorry! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.