What’s the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they hear the word vegan? For many, it is something like “crazy protein deficient animal rights activist.” This may be correct in some cases, but the majority of the time it is a very inaccurate description of this conscientious lifestyle. A vegan is a person who chooses to abstain from not only the consumption of meat and animal-based foods, but also any products that are created by the exploitation of animals. If people were more philosophically analytical with their thinking, they would have more epistemic beliefs on veganism, which would lead to an increase in the number of humans who lead vegan lifestyles. Many people confuse their uneducated opinions with epistemic beliefs. The…show more content… In her work “On Epistemology,” she discusses humans’ epistemic requirements. She writes about how imperative it is to be conscientious in the beliefs that we have and in the domain. This leads into the values that we should all have when it comes to living an honest life: true belief, knowing the difference between true and false beliefs, confidence in our beliefs, credibility, trust and predictability (Zagzebski). Finally, she explains the meaning of evidentialism, which is basically basing your beliefs off of evidence. This is an important concept when it comes to studying people’s analysis on veganism. A quote from Zagzebski’s article is as follows: “Of course there are many beliefs we will never act upon and neither will anybody else, so a failure of conscientiousness in these beliefs does not seem to be a moral failing” (Zagzebski). She goes on to say, however, that the issue is a lack of thought behind habits. This is such a relevant idea when it comes to people who detest veganism, because these people fail, and even sometimes refuse, to reflect on their actions and the…show more content… According to vegan.org, hens spend their whole entire life in a pin, living in unclean cages crammed with other hens and covered in feces and urine from the pins above them. This can lead to excruciatingly painful bone disease, obsessive pecking, and more. The article also says that most chickens have the possibility of living for up to fifteen years, but they are typically slaughtered within two when they aren’t producing the amount of eggs deemed appropriate by humans. The life of these chickens has no value to the humans, so they are brutally and painfully slaughtered, smashed, suffocated, or killed in another careless way (About Veganism). Regardless on whether someone is an animal lover or not, most people could not view these horrid conditions and still say they do not see a problem. However, the fact of the matter is, these facts of life about the dairy and meat industry bring up feelings of sadness, shame, and guilt, and humans would rather ignore these feelings then take them head on and make a change in their lives. Most people do not use evidence to understand the need for veganism, and therefore choose to fail at epistemic
