The Applied Ethicist and the Practice Lens: On Moral Guidance in Food Practices

Abstract

In this thesis, I take readers on an ethical journey through the grocery store. Along the way, I argue that ethicists should complement their use of ethical theories with a practice lens in food practices. First, it will be argued that the minimal requirement for meaningful ethical work in practices requires coherence with the lived experience argument; stating that moral reflection, in practice, must always depart from within particular moral frameworks encountered. Second, grocery shoppers are characterized as moral agents, with different priorities and life­-projects, therefore requiring flexibility in engaging their particular outlooks. Then, practice theories and ‘a practice lens’ are discussed, to examine how they reveal the workings and elements of human practices, and how they provide a better view of the interconnected practices that make up social, and moral, life. Third, moral guidance from mainstream ethics and practice-­based approaches is discussed with regards to grocery shopping experience. This will reveal some of the difficulties for mainstream approaches to ‘speak to’ shoppers deliberations in practice. The complementary use of practice­-based approaches and a practice lens will then be argued to provide connective tissue, or a conduit, between ethical theorizing and the lived experience of agents.