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Audiobook edition · 20 h 22 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What gives us the right to kill animals for food when we do not need to?
In The Ethics of Diet, Howard Williams follows this question across centuries. He gathers philosophers, poets, religious teachers and essayists who argue against eating animal flesh. Rather than offer recipes or health advice, he builds a moral case through their words, asking what human appetite means for creatures that can feel pain.
The journey moves from the followers of Pythagoras to Greek and Roman thinkers, early religious ascetics and later European writers. Plato imagines a city sustained by plain foods. Seneca recalls giving up flesh in his youth. Montaigne considers cruelty and pity. Williams brings these voices together, with his own commentary, to show the long history of refusing flesh on moral grounds.
What you’ll discover
- A question across centuries Follow one persistent moral challenge through changing times, beliefs and habits of thought.
- The Pythagorean tradition Meet followers of Pythagoras, traditionally associated with abstaining from animal flesh.
- Plato's simple city Consider a life built around plain foods such as grain, fruit and wine.
- Seneca's personal example Explore his account of giving up flesh under a Pythagorean teacher's influence.
- Montaigne on cruelty Reflect on pity for animals and the wrong of taking pleasure in their pain.
Who will love it
Readers who love philosophy, poetry, medicine and the history of ideas will enjoy this gathering of voices. It suits anyone curious about compassion and what we owe other creatures and ourselves.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The oldest voices place bloodless living at the start
- Plato and Ovid picture a simple city and a golden age
- Seneca ties plain eating to mercy and honest learning
- Plutarch argues from anatomy, pain and plain shame
- Early churchmen and pagan teachers preach restraint
- The Renaissance turns the question toward conscience
- Naturalists, poets and doctors add science and wit
- Enlightenment writers link diet to reason and justice
- Doctors and reformers test the diet on themselves
- Nineteenth century voices make compassion a rule of life
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L’Éthique de l’alimentation
by Howard Williams · 1883
Fifty thinkers, from Pythagoras to Shelley, line up to question what sits on the dinner plate.
Challenging10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
Would you eat your dinner if you had to kill the animal first, with your own hands? That one question runs through this book, and people have been asking it for twenty-five centuries.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The oldest voices place bloodless living at the start
Williams opens with Hesiod, a Greek poet of the eighth century BC. In his poem Works and Days, humanity falls from a golden race to an iron one. The golden people live like gods and enjoy the fruits the earth gives freely. Williams reads this as the oldest picture of a peaceful life free from slaughter.
The brazen race is the first to hold bloody feasts, and it lives for the spear and the battle. So violence at the table and violence in war arrive together in the story.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1883
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 13 h 15 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Williams, Howard. The Ethics of Diet. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-diet.
Williams, H. (2026). The ethics of diet. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-diet (Original work published 1883)
Williams, Howard. The Ethics of Diet. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-diet.
@book{williams2026ethics,
author = {Williams, Howard},
title = {The Ethics of Diet},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-ethics-of-diet},
note = {First published 1883}
}
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What is The Ethics of Diet about?
It collects the words of about fifty thinkers, from Pythagoras and Plutarch to Shelley and Schopenhauer, who questioned eating flesh. Williams adds short biographies and his own commentary, arguing from compassion, health, anatomy and economy.
Who was Howard Williams?
Howard Williams, M.A., was a British writer who campaigned for dietary reform. He compiled the chapters over five years for the Dietetic Reformer and published the book in 1883. He died in 1931.
What does catena mean in the subtitle?
Catena is Latin for chain. The book links authorities one after another, each chapter giving a short life of the thinker and extracts from their writings, so the argument builds link by link through history.
The author
Howard Williams
1854–1933 · English writer and vegetarian activist
Howard Williams, M.A., died in 1931. He was a British writer and a supporter of dietary reform who gathered this book over five years for the Dietetic Reformer and published it in 1883. The work shows its author's world: Victorian humanitarian societies, reformed restaurants, and a firm hope that compassion would one day reach the animals.
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