10 October 2022

Porphyry on Vegetarianism

“Abstinence from [eating or sacrificing] animate creatures, as I also said in my first book [letter], is not advised for everyone without exception, but for philosophers, and among philosophers chiefly for those who make their happiness depend on God and the imitation of God.”

(Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, translated by Gillian Clark, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 2000, page 55)

When I read this, I understand traditional, classical, philosophy, and Platonism in particular, to be a tradition that was distinguished by commitments to behave in specific ways; what today we might call ethical commitments or restrictions.  Porphyry’s view is that in order to be a philosopher you have to be a vegetarian; that is to say that vegetarianism is a defining feature of what it means to be a philosopher.

Porphyry in Abstinence is writing to a friend who had been committed to the philosophical way of life, but had recently abandoned that life, signaling his departure from philosophy by resuming the consumption of animals, or meat.  It appears that Porphyry wrote four letters to his friend (we don’t have his friend’s responses, if there were any).  The above quote is from the second letter.  Earlier, in the first letter, Porphyry writes:

“First, then, you should know that my discourse will not offer advice to every human way of life: not to those who engage in banausic crafts [banausic means practical, utilitarian], nor to athletes of the body, nor to soldiers, nor sailors, nor orators, nor to those who have chosen the life of public affairs, but to the person who has thought about who he is and whence he has come and where he should try to go, and who has principles about food, and about other proper behavior, which are different from those in other ways of life.”

(Ibid, page 40)

This makes sense to me.  Athletes in training are often encouraged by their coaches to eat in a certain way.  Porphyry is making a similar point about the philosopher; that philosophers need to pay attention to things like the food they eat. 

I think the main reason Porphyry argues that the philosophical life in particular requires a commitment to a vegetarian diet is that abstinence from eating animals assists philosophers in their contemplative practice.  I mean that eating meat makes the mind sluggish and distracted, while being vegetarian makes the mind lighter and makes it so the mind finds contemplation more agreeable.

In the first quote Porphyry says refers to ‘the imitation of God’ as a reason for abstaining from killing (eating or sacrificing) animals.  This is another aspect of the philosophers’ commitment to vegetarianism.  Porphyry is saying that vegetarianism brings you closer to God by imitating God.  How does that work?  One way of looking at this is that The Good, The One, and The Beautiful are self-sufficient; that ultimate nature does not exist at the expense of other things.  Similarly, when we commit ourselves to a vegetarian diet, we significantly mimic that manner of existing; that is to say our own life is not lived at the expense of others or by causing harm to others.  While it is not possible to live such a life completely in the material world, nevertheless, every step made in that direction is of benefit, both to ourselves in this life and future lives, and also to countless other living beings.