The Pig that Wants to be Eaten - And 99 Other Thought Experiments
The Pig that Wants to be Eaten - And 99 Other Thought Experiments
by Julian Baggini
Granta, $135
'I have always rather identified with pigs,' Chris Patten once observed, and quoted Winston Churchill as saying: 'Cats look down on you, dogs look up to you; only pigs treat you as an equal.' In that respect, there is an argument to be made that eating a pig would be no more acceptable than eating your dog or your cat. But what if the pig were genetically engineered to really want to be eaten? Having posed this philosophical problem, Julian Baggini, founding editor of The Philosophers' Magazine, proceeds to test various responses. 'Organ transplants and blood transfusions seemed freakish when first conceived, but as we got used to both, the idea that they are morally wrong has died out, apart from among a few religious sects,' he writes. The Pig that Wants to be Eaten is a collection of philosophical teasers designed to reveal what you really think about torture, free speech, pre-emptive justice, manipulation of evidence, suicide bombers, absolute rights and wrongs and whether there's anything in between. Try this at home, but let the pig out first.