The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast Episode 153, 'Beautiful Veganism' with Vid Simoniti
Mar 8, 2026
Vid Simoniti, philosopher of aesthetics and ethics, explores how beauty and moral judgment about food interact. She contrasts aesthetic and suffering-based objections to meat. She discusses fish versus mammals, probabilistic reasoning about consciousness, persuasion through art, family compromises, and politics as a route to large-scale ethical change.
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Admiring Veganism While Confessing Pescatarian Compromise
- Vid Simoniti admires vegans as exemplars of an ideal of human excellence rooted in flourishing rather than strict moral rules.
- He admits he's pescatarian because he loves fish and sees different moral weight in harming mammals versus fish, citing cognitive complexity and environmental impact.
Beauty Depends On Knowledge Of Origins
- Aesthetic appreciation should incorporate factual knowledge about production; learning meat's production harms reduces its aesthetic value.
- Vid likens discovering meat's origins to finding a mole is cancerous: the new facts change how you should view it.
Aesthetic Experience Is More Than Pleasure
- True aesthetic experience is distinct from mere pleasure; it can be a higher sense of feeling 'at home in the world' or the sublime.
- Vid argues atrocities are both moral catastrophes and aesthetic disruptions to the world's balance.
