 First edition cover | |
| Author | Howard Williams |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | History of vegetarianism |
| Publisher |
|
Publication date | xii + 1883 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 336 |
| OCLC | 1045396368 |
The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating is an 1883 book by Howard Williams, on the history of vegetarianism. The book was influential on the development of the Victorian vegetarian movement.
The Ethics of Diet, originally serialised between 1878 and 1883, appeared as a series of articles in The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger , the monthly journal of The Vegetarian Society. [1] [2]
The book tells the history of vegetarianism from the writings of the first Pythagorean philosophers of the Ancient World until the author's time. Among the writers mentioned in the book are: Ovid, Plutarch, Porphyry, Luigi Cornaro, Michel de Montaigne, John Ray, Voltaire, Alexander Pope, Percy Shelley, Alphonse de Lamartine, Joseph Ritson, and Gustav Struve. [3] Not all authors mentioned in the book were vegetarians (Thomas More, for example, was probably not a vegetarian), [4] but they all had critical views of meat-eating. [5]
The Ethics of Diet has been recognised as providing important momentum for the Victorian vegetarian movement. [6] It was influential for many contemporary leading vegetarians, including Mohandas Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Henry Stephens Salt, [7] and Jaime de Magalhães Lima (a Tolstoyan). [8]
Gandhi, who met Williams in Ventnor, wrote in his autobiography: [9]
My faith in vegetarianism grew on me from day to day. Salt's book Plea for Vegetarianism whetted my appetite for dietetic studies. I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them. One of these, Howard Williams' The Ethics of Diet, was a 'biographical history of the literature of humane dietetics from the earliest period to the present day'.
Tolstoy considered it an "excellent book", [10] : 83 asserting that "The precise reason why abstinence from animal food will be the first act of fasting and of a moral life is admirably explained in the book, The Ethics of Diet; and not by one man only, but by all mankind in the persons of its best representatives during all the conscious life of humanity." [10] : 91–92 Henry Stephens Salt commented that "Of all recent books on the subject of animals' rights this is by far the most scholarly and exhaustive". [11] Jaime de Magalhães Lima, used Williams' book as a reference to write his 1912 conference O Vegetarismo e a Moralidade das raças. [8]
In 1892, a Russian translation was published with a foreword by Tolstoy titled "The First Step". [12] A Swedish translation by Victor Pfeiff, was published in Stockholm in 1900. [13]
In 1896, an updated edition appeared with a new title The Ethics of Diet: A Biographical History of the Literature of Human Dietetics, From the Earliest Period to the Present Day [12] and additional material (chapters on Asoka, Oliver Goldsmith, Henry David Thoreau, Richard Wagner, and Anna Kingsford, among others). [14] In 1907, Albert Broadbent published an abridged edition. [15] The book later became a rarity, only available in certain libraries. [16]
In 2003, the University of Illinois Press published a new edition of the book, edited by the ecofeminist author Carol J. Adams, with an additional introduction. [17] Adams describes Williams' book as successfully managing to "reinstate vegetarianism as an ethical imperative within history by giving it a history". [18]
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat. It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. A person who practices vegetarianism is known as a vegetarian.
The Tolstoyan movement is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount.
Carol J. Adams is an American writer, feminist, and animal rights advocate. She is the author of several books, including The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (1990) and The Pornography of Meat (2004), focusing in particular on what she argues are the links between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals. She was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2011.
Henry Shakespear Stephens Salt was a British writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. He was a noted ethical vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, socialist, and pacifist, and was well known as a literary critic, biographer, classical scholar and naturalist. It was Salt who first introduced Mohandas Gandhi to the influential works of Henry David Thoreau, and influenced Gandhi's study of vegetarianism. Salt is considered, by some, to be the "father of animal rights", having been one of the first writers to argue explicitly in favour of animal rights, rather than just improvements to animal welfare, in his book Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress (1892).
A lacto-vegetarian diet abstains from the consumption of meat as well as eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ghee, cream, and kefir, as well as honey.
Christian vegetarianism is the practice of keeping to a vegetarian lifestyle for reasons connected to or derived from the Christian faith. The three primary reasons are spiritual, nutritional, and ethical. The ethical reasons may include a concern for God's creation, a concern for animal rights and welfare, or both. Likewise, Christian veganism is not using any animal products for reasons connected to or derived from the Christian faith. Pescatarianism was widespread in the early Church, among both the clergy and laity. Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians.
The practice of vegetarianism is strongly linked with a number of religious traditions worldwide. These include religions that originated in India, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. With close to 85% of India's billion-plus population practicing these religions, India remains the country with the highest number of vegetarians in the world.
George Nicholson was an English printer, author, and vegetarianism advocate.
The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people are from ancient India, especially among the Hindus and Jains. Later records indicate that small groups within the ancient Greek civilizations in southern Italy and Greece also adopted some dietary habits similar to vegetarianism. In both instances, the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence toward animals, and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers.
The Humanitarian League was a British radical advocacy group formed by Henry S. Salt and others to promote the principle that it is wrong to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. It was based in London and operated between 1891 and 1919.
Diet in Hinduism signifies the diverse traditions found across the Indian subcontinent. Hindu scriptures promote a vegetarian dietary ideal based on the concept of ahimsa—non-violence and compassion towards all beings. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Hindus say they are vegetarian.
Howard Williams was an English activist, historian, and writer. He advocated for humanitarianism and vegetarianism. Williams was noted for authoring The Ethics of Diet, a history of vegetarianism, which was influential on the Victorian vegetarian movement. He was also the inspiration and co-founder of the Humanitarian League and served as Vice-President of the London Vegetarian Society.
Jean-Antoine Gleizes was a French philosopher, writer, and early advocate of vegetarianism. He was extremely popular and influential at his time. His best known work is Thalysie: the New Existence.
A Vindication of Natural Diet is an 1813 book by Percy Bysshe Shelley on vegetarianism and animal rights. It was first written as part of the notes to Queen Mab, which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was separately published as a pamphlet.
William Lambe was an English physician and early veganism activist. He has been described as a pioneer of vegan nutrition.
Why I Am a Vegetarian is an 1895 pamphlet based on an address delivered by J. Howard Moore before the Chicago Vegetarian Society. It was reprinted several times by the society and other publishers.
Henry John Williams was an English Anglican priest and activist for humanitarianism, animal rights and vegetarianism. He was the founder of the Order of the Golden Age, an international animal rights society.
Reasons for Not Eating Animal Food is an 1814 pamphlet on vegetable diet, which was written by Sir Richard Phillips. It was originally written in 1811, and published multiple times by the author.
"The First Step" is an article by Leo Tolstoy primarily advocating for vegetarianism, but at the same time also briefly mentioning themes relating to anarchism and pacifism. It was Tolstoy's preface to a book by Howard Williams, which Tolstoy translated into Russian.
On Abstinence from Eating Animals is a 3rd-century treatise by Porphyry on the ethics of vegetarianism. The four-book treatise was composed by the philosopher as an open letter to Castricius Firmus, a fellow pupil of Plotinus who had renounced a vegetarian diet.
Not unimportant in the momentum gathered by the Vegetarian Movement in late Victorian England was a book by one Howard Williams entitled The Ethics of Diet, which was published in 1890.
