History 2158A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: John Harvey Kellogg, Endocannibalism, Early Christianity
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Vegetarians and Cannibals
What is Vegetarianism?
●A diet that excludes the flesh of animals
○Self-conscious decision
●Types of Vegetarians
○Semi-vegetarian
○Pollo-vegetarian
○Pesco-vegetarian
○Ovo-lacto vegetarian
○Lacto-vegetarian
○Ovo-vegetarian
○Vegans
■Raw foodists
○Fruitarians
●Most people throughout history who ate vegetarian diets did so because they were poor
Religious Basis
●Hinduism
●Buddhism
A2 + B2 = vegetarianism
●Pythagoras (c.570 - c.495 BC)
○Regarded as the largest Western influence on vegetarian thought
○Pythagorean diet
●Other thinkers were worried about the impact of slaughtering animals on humans
●Early Christians thought meat was a sexual stimulant, and therefore restrained from meat to stay pure
Renaissance to the Enlightenment
●Thinking shifted and meat-eating was desirable
●Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
○Concern about animal suffering
○Why not grow more food instead of growing food to feed animals and kill them
●René Descartes (1596-1650)
○Argued that because animals lacked souls they didn’t feel pain
●Thomas Tryon (1634-1703)
○The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness (1683)
■How shall they but Bestial grow/That thus to feed on Beasts are willing?/Or why should they a long
life know/Who daily practice Killing?
●Constant exposure to slaughtering animals would make you a violent person
■Argued that meat was fundamentally unhealthy and indigestible
●Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
○The question is not, Can they reason? Nor Can they talk? But Can they suffer?
○Increased advocacy for animals
○Utilitarianism
Document Summary
A diet that excludes the flesh of animals. Most people throughout history who ate vegetarian diets did so because they were poor. Regarded as the largest western influence on vegetarian thought. Other thinkers were worried about the impact of slaughtering animals on humans. Early christians thought meat was a sexual stimulant, and therefore restrained from meat to stay pure. Why not grow more food instead of growing food to feed animals and kill them. Argued that because animals lacked souls they didn"t feel pain. The way to health, long life and happiness (1683) Constant exposure to slaughtering animals would make you a violent person. Argued that meat was fundamentally unhealthy and indigestible. Each juicy morsel [of meat] is fairly alive and swimming with the identical micro-organisms found in a dead rat in a closet or the putrefying carcass of a cow. Argued against slaughtering animals not for moral reasons but because it"s gross.
