A Multicultural Approach to Practical Ethics

(Public Lecture, Applied Ethics Seminar, Silliman University, 2018)

Practical issues are often discussed or resolved using Western values, perspectives, and principles. This is not necessarily wrong, but it narrowly sees things and is somewhat dismissive of communal values. A plurality of values, in this way, is preferred, given the multicultural nature of society. Generally, ethics is not the catalog of right and wrong, or a set of moral prescriptions. Rather, it is a discipline that concerns with the rules and principles that determine some standard of moral reasoning. Moral reasoning, however, must go beyond theories. Larry May and Jill Delston suggest that people can begin with what is concrete – rules, codes, and social rules.

Book Chapter: Rights and Animal Welfare

(Excerpts, Ethics and Human Dignity, 2010)

Some people have bad habits. For instance, pigs are transported in decrepit trailers or trucks, their bodies cut with blades to identify them. Chickens are grown at a fast rate so that they can be consumed after 23 days while raised in the difficult conditions of poultry farms. And of course, some people slaughter dogs and torture them before they are finally served on the dining table.