The Tyranny of Architecture

The Tyranny of Architecture is a full philosophical defense of veganism, one that defends the practice in a way fundamentally unique among such arguments. It makes the case that in a human society built on artificial constructs, the only demonstrable ethics not part of an imagined community is that of respecting the right to life and contentment, construed for farmed animals as adequate food, space, and other basic amenities, along with the right not to be tortured and killed for the unnecessary whims of humans existing mentally within a subset of artificial constructs that do not include those nonhuman animals. The book attempts to be as comprehensive in its defense as possible, a full philosophical case that can be used in its entirety or as a reference point for debate.

While there are myriad legal defenses of animal rights, and even more moral cases for them, there is a gap in the vegan literature of philosophical apologetics for veganism. I think the development of such an apologetics is important, as though veganism is not a religion, its adherents are devoted to the core principles of veganism in much the same way that religious people are (even creating within the movement legitimate schisms like abolitionism versus welfarism). That being the case, it seems that apologetics and comprehensive philosophical defenses of veganism demonstrating its particular necessity in a postmodern age are inordinately relevant. The filling of that gap in the literature and its ability to be used as a reference are its principal selling points, along with its unique defense.