All Too Human, O Bro

A personal essay which deals with the issue of eating nonhuman animals. However, instead of offering learned interpretations and formal arguments, Iczkovits examines the issue through its emotional and social aspects. He draws inspiration from his academic background, on the one hand, and from the process of his becoming vegetarian, on the other, in order to describe the ideational, emotional, social, and parental challenges involved in the attempt to juggle philosophical-academic education and a personal moral approach based on compassion. In Iczkovits’ words, the essay does not deal with animal rights or with academic arguments for or against them “but rather with the very possibility of serving sausages at an academic conference dealing with animal rights.”