Ethics and Food Taste

Abstract

When people choose what to eat, one of the main reasons is the taste of the food. Many people in the world do not have much choice in their diets given their poverty, but in the Western world, the average consumer enjoys an overwhelming variety of affordable foods. The focus of this entry is the role of taste in the food choices of those who do have a choice. With more choices comes more responsibility; deciding what to eat has a moral dimension as well since food choices have an enormous impact on the agent’s health, the environment, and the well-being of other humans and animals. The core puzzle posed by taste is its involvement in the most common and ubiquitous cases of what look like weakness of will. Many people find certain foods morally bad because of their presumed or genuinely harmful consequences. For example, one might intend to become a vegetarian if one cares for animals and wants them not to suffer. However, despite of the intention, the person may fail to do so because of her high preferences for the taste of meat. Other examples include the wish to eat healthier or less fattening foods, but somehow the intention gets trumped because one is unable to resist the good taste of those foods. Tastes thus seem to have much more motivating force than often acknowledged. The ethical dimension of the issue is evident when one considers the failure of large masses of people to eat foods that they know to be better for themselves, the environment, the animals, and other people. The entry is structured as follows. Section “What Is Taste?” clarifies the notion of “taste.” Section “Tastes as Reasons” discusses the relation of tastes and reasons. Section “The Puzzle of Unethical Food Choices” introduces the puzzle of unethical food choices. Sections “Bad Food Choices as a Consequence of Weakness of the Will” and “Bad Food as the Subjectively Rational Choice” discuss two alternative answers to the puzzle. Section “Are People Egoists?” considers whether ethical egoism might explain the unethical food choices. Section “Ethical Gourmandism” summarizes Korsmeyer’s ethical gourmandism which holds that the taste of food depends on its moral properties. Section “Is There a Duty to Train One’s Taste?” asks whether there might be a moral duty to train oneself to not prefer the bad foods.