This paper has two goals. The first is to offer a carefully reasoned argument for ethical veganism:
the view that it is (at least typically) wrong to eat or otherwise use animal products. The second
goal is to give you, the reader, some important tools for developing, evaluating, and replying to
reasoned arguments for ethical conclusions. I begin by offering you a brief essay, arguing that it is
wrong to eat meat. This essay both introduces central elements of my case for veganism, and
serves as one helpful model of a short ethics essay. In the remainder of this paper, I use the model
essay as a target, to illustrate important strategies for developing objections to ethical arguments.
I will also illustrate a range of important ways for the vegan to reply to these objections. You can
use the models and skills I illustrate here in your own essays, and in your reasoned evaluation of
ethical arguments. I conclude that the arguments and replies offered in this paper add up to a
powerful reasoned case for ethical veganism. You can practice the skills I illustrate here to
deciding for yourself – in a reasoned way – whether my conclusion is correct
