This dissertation focuses upon a group of vegetarians which are members of an English-speaking, o... more This dissertation focuses upon a group of vegetarians which are members of an English-speaking, online atheist community, an investigation of their Weltanschauug (worldview) for meat-avoidance, and the subsequent discourse analysis undertaken for this study. One aim of this study is achieved by an ‘online ethnography’ that discusses the views of atheist-vegetarians towards the question; “Is there a link between atheism/vegetarianism?”. This method understands that analysing text can overcome context and time constraints in consideration of transcendent perspectives such as worldviews. Furthermore, a consideration of atheist and vegetarian literature is explored to complement the nature of the ethnography; ‘Atheist-vegetarianism’, human and animal relationships, and the cultural politics of meat were chosen. This work highlights the role of speciesism within theistic/atheist and vegetarian discourse, and the construction of morality through sources of science, rationality and consumption ideals. Furthermore, this work hopes to highlight the subtle hegemonic ways in which contemporary meat consumption is maintained, not only by traditional consumption rituals, but by a non-exclusive list of economic, anthropocentric, nutritional, and philosophical paradigms. If we use Heidegger’s school of postmodernist thought to treat meat-free lifestyles as autonomous worldviews, we can similarly compare these perceptions with wider socio-political/economic ‘meat practices’ which maintain meat consumption in order for atheist-vegetarianism to potentially provide a new form of moral theory. This ‘moral theory’, akin to Carole Adams’ (1990) feminist-vegetarian writings, would provide a new look at how moral vegetarianism could highlight the presupposition that religious discourse holds over the consumption of meat, and of man’s anthropocentrism towards animals.
This dissertation focuses upon a group of vegetarians which are members of an English-speaking, o... more This dissertation focuses upon a group of vegetarians which are members of an English-speaking, online atheist community, an investigation of their Weltanschauug (worldview) for meat-avoidance, and the subsequent discourse analysis undertaken for this study. One aim of this study is achieved by an ‘online ethnography’ that discusses the views of atheist-vegetarians towards the question; “Is there a link between atheism/vegetarianism?”. This method understands that analysing text can overcome context and time constraints in consideration of transcendent perspectives such as worldviews. Furthermore, a consideration of atheist and vegetarian literature is explored to complement the nature of the ethnography; ‘Atheist-vegetarianism’, human and animal relationships, and the cultural politics of meat were chosen. This work highlights the role of speciesism within theistic/atheist and vegetarian discourse, and the construction of morality through sources of science, rationality and consumption ideals. Furthermore, this work hopes to highlight the subtle hegemonic ways in which contemporary meat consumption is maintained, not only by traditional consumption rituals, but by a non-exclusive list of economic, anthropocentric, nutritional, and philosophical paradigms. If we use Heidegger’s school of postmodernist thought to treat meat-free lifestyles as autonomous worldviews, we can similarly compare these perceptions with wider socio-political/economic ‘meat practices’ which maintain meat consumption in order for atheist-vegetarianism to potentially provide a new form of moral theory. This ‘moral theory’, akin to Carole Adams’ (1990) feminist-vegetarian writings, would provide a new look at how moral vegetarianism could highlight the presupposition that religious discourse holds over the consumption of meat, and of man’s anthropocentrism towards animals.
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Papers by Robert Lawton