Objections to the Anti-Complicity Principle

Abstract

This paper was originally written for Professor Bruno Guindon’s Philosophy 120W course, Moral and Legal Problems. The assignment asked students to write an argumentative philosophy essay evaluating McPherson’s anti-complicity principle. The paper uses APA citation style.  

This paper examines the morality of meat eating, drawing on the inefficacy objection and the anti-complicity principle. It argues that the anti-complicity proves too much. This is because the anti-complicity principle deems meat-eating morally permissible only under extreme circumstances. This paper then proposed a revised principle which broadens the permissibility of meat-eating. It thus complicates McPherson’s argument on the permissibility of meat-eating using the revised principle.