Morality is Subjective

Is causing unnecessary suffering to animals morally wrong? Maybe for some people, definitely for vegans, but for others, it might not be a concern at all. So if I want to eat meat, why don’t I just decide that it’s morally okay to do so?

How do we determine our morals?

From my understanding, a combination of empathy and logic determines our morals.

Who needs empathy?

We have empathy, which allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of others and feel their pain or joy.

A world with more empathy straight up is more beneficial to everyone! And here are some pretty solid reasons:

• It reduces prejudice and racism (these need to go!)
• It fights inequality (damn billionaires taking everything)
• It’s good for police so they aren’t coming into situations guns blazing
• It promotes heroic acts

Who needs logic?

We have logic, which allows us to take our empathy and apply it consistently to others.

I studied computer science and I write code for a living… Do I really need to go on about why logic is important to me?

Mix it all together

A combination of logic and empathy leads us to make moral decisions that are both consistent and compassionate. Empathy without logic could lead me to emphatically agreeing with my wife no matter what possibly leading to commiting irreversible crimes against our terrible building manager. While logic without empathy could result in me fact checking my friends into oblivion over every minor detail, leading me to the deserved life of a technically correct but socially isolated hermit.

To fulfil my goal of trying to make the world a better place, it’s easy to see that more empathy is essential, and logic helps ensure that our actions align with our compassionate intentions.

Moral Consistency

I believe morality is subjective (debatable but not the time and place to open this can of worms). However, I still can’t just decide that eating meat is okay when I apply both my empathy and my logic:

• My empathy understands that pain and suffering is bad. I want to try my best to not cause unnecessary suffering to others.
• My logic firstly extends that empathy to all sentient beings because pain is pain is pain, and secondly, it forces me to acknowledge that my choice in food contributes directly to that suffering, despite all the abstraction.

Therefore, even though morality is subjective, I still end up concluding that exploiting animals and eating meat is morally wrong for me.