From Athena Rare Books ABAA, Fairfield, CT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 24 January 2003
About this Item
Half title + TP + 5-196. Octavo. First Edition Thus. The Oldest Surviving Western Work on VegetarianismA Barnes & Noble book. Best known to scholars by it's title in Latin, De abstinentia ab esu animalium, this is the most detailed surviving work discussing vegetarianism from classical antiquity. This 3rd century treatise examines and extols the ethics of vegetarianism. The treatise is divided into four-book and was composed by the philosopher as an open letter to Castricius Firmus, a fellow pupil of Plotinus who had renounced a vegetarian diet.Porphyry advocates for vegetarianism on both spiritual and ethical grounds, applying arguments from his own school of Neoplatonism to counter arguments in favor of meat-eating put forward by the Stoic, Peripatetic and Epicurean schools. Porphyry argues that we have a moral obligation to extend justice to animals because they are rational beings and he then discusses societies that have been historically vegetarian, the implications of the transmigration of the soul and offers arguments against animal sacrifices.Interestingly, Porphyry's discourse was directed towards philosophers, and does not advocate that people such as soldiers or athletes adopt a vegetarian diet. In publisher's original dust jacket with brown lettering on a green field over copper-colored boards with brown lettering to the spine. While the green background is unaffected, the writing on the spine is significantly faded and just barely readable. With a former owner's '74") to the upper right corner of the front free endpaper. Otherwise, this a clean, tight, bright copy of this earliest available work on Western vegetarianism. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Seller Inventory # 1490
Bibliographic Details
Title: Porphyry on Abstinence from Animal Food.
Publisher: Centaur Press Ltd, London
Publication Date: 1965
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: FIRST EDITION THUS.
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