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Purpose in Evolution

I stumbled across renegade philosopher Chris Bateman during Covidtide, and have found him a breath of fresh air in a world where intellectuals rarely say unexpected things. Bateman is difficult to categorize both philosophically and politically, a sure sign of a vivid and independent mind. He always approaches his topics with good will and generosity to his "opponents", and his arguments are lucid and always good food for thought, regardless of whether or not I agree with them. I have only read one of Bateman's books to date (though I hope to dig into more in the future), namely, The Mythology of Evolution , which I found an invaluable resource to investigating the unspoken assumptions that we all bring to the table with powerful and pervasive "myths" like evolution. Most of the book I found well-argued, and couldn't help but agree with its conclusions, but there was one section that I took small issue with. The structure of the book involves Bateman identi
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On Brandon on Francione on Veganism

 [[This blog is intended solely to be a place for me to work out my own thoughts in "conversation" with various bloggers and thinkers with whom I come into intellectual contact, perhaps as part of Chris Bateman's Republic of Bloggers. I spend a great deal of time thinking, but not enough time writing, and I hope this exercise will enable me to put my thoughts in better order, and perhaps improve my communication of them at the same time]] Brandon over at the excellent Siris blog writes in response to Gary Francione's article on owning animals and veganism . I have not yet read over Francione's full article, but mostly want to engage with the particular attitude that Brandon has in arguing against vegetarians and vegans, one which he has used a couple of times before. Basically, when Francione claims that veganism is morally necessary, Brandon responds that veganism is so difficult and expensive a lifestyle to maintain healthily that it can be written off as a mo
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