What do we do when we eat? In the first part of this contribution it is observed that
this question is surprisingly seldom addressed in philosophical, ethical and
theological literature in such a way that the evolutionary rootedness of human
eating, the role of predation and the necessity of death in any form of eating are
addressed. A crude typology of interpretations of the act of eating is offered on the
basis of concepts such as survival, human (male) supremacy, asceticism, hedonistic
consumption and conspicuous consumption. It is argued that all of these positions
remain unsatisfactory in the sense that they cannot do justice simultaneously to
scientific, ecological, cultural, ethical and theological considerations. The underlying problem is that the need for predation is either employed as a point of
departure or minimised, if not avoided or denied.
Link: http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/scriptur/v115/13.pdf
DOI: http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/scriptur/v115/13.pdf
