Towards Freedom

In Philostratus' Life of Apollonius, we have perhaps the clearest historical account of an ancient vegan in the character of Apollonius of Tyana. This article will explore Apollonius's views on veganism and animal righton, their relation to the philosophical life of the ancients and will chronicle some of the experiences Apollonius faced in regards to his veganism.

As a continuation of our series on ancient vegans, we'll attempt here to take into consideration Porphyry's essay On Abstinence from Animal Food, written in the third century CE, and translated into English by Thomas Taylor in 1823. A full pdf of the essay is provided here.

Porphyry (234-305 CE), the student of Plotinus, and elder contemporary of Iamblichus, plays a central role in the Neoplatonism of the early centuries CE. He is perhaps best known for his compilation of his teacher's works, which are today known as the Enneads , but he was also a voluminous writer in his own right. Among his writings is the famous Life of Pythagoras , from which we gain many insights into the way of life prescribed by that great philosopher, which we touched on in our article on Apollonius of Tyana. It was this way of life that influenced Porphyry and other Neoplatonists in their adoption of a diet including no animal foods. Porphyry's strong position on animal rights and veganism is demonstrated aptly in the following quote:

Orpheus charming wild animals with his music

To Health

O Much-desir'd, prolific, gen'ral queen,
Hear me, life-bearing, Health, of beauteous mien,
Mother of all; by thee diseases dire,
Of bliss destructive, from our life retire;
And ev'ry house is flourishing and fair,
If with rejoicing aspect thou art there:
Each daedal art, thy vig'rous force inspires,
And all the world thy helping hand desires;
Pluto life's bane alone resists thy will,
And ever hates thy all-preserving skill.
O fertile queen, from thee forever flows
To mortal life from agony repose;
And men without thy all-sustaining ease,
Find nothing useful, nothing form'd to please;
Without thy aid, not Plutus' self can thrive,
Nor man to much afflicted age arrive;
For thou alone of countenance serene,
Dost govern all things, universal queen.
Assist thy mystics with propitious mind,
And far avert disease of ev'ry kind.

This page is presently in construction.

This is the comprehensive ARVEG FAQ produced by KG which covers just about every imaginable attack against animal rights and vegan stances. It provides factual, effective and occasionally amusing responses provided. (Some additions and modifications have been made from the earlier version and the original due to broken 20+ yr links as well as new material.)

In the TOC, "->" indicates there is more to the question than could be fitted and can be viewed by clicking on the link.

There are many stories told about Buddha the Compassionate One. They carry the eternal message with a simplicity that any child can understand. Here is one of those gems.

(Image generated by Microsoft Designer.)

This article deals with confusion and distress that can materialize for humans who put cats on vegan diets.

Fallacious argumentations in animal rights and vegan discussions are identified according to the rules of logic. This guide exposes standard logical fallacies that repeatedly appear and demonstrates their invalidity.

No one is perfect. Everyone is open to criticism. Any individual or group can be examined and criticized where appropriate and fair. The misery and death perpetrated against nonhuman animals is an unfathomable catastrophic hell, and one should seek to improve the lives of victims whenever possible while pursuing an end to the practices. This is what we would do with a human rights situation and nonhumans deserve no less.

In regards to the "nobody's vegan" idea, I'll attempt to demonstrate why it is flawed in its essence.

The "nobody's vegan" idea stems from the delusion that there is ever an absolute manifestation of anything within a universe constructed on a foundation of relativity combined with the delusion that it is those absolute's we are talking about when we identify something with a label. No absolute ideal is ever fully, 100%, completely manifest. All manifstation is a construction of degrees, of spectrum. Just as there is no absolute light, nor absolute dark, so too is there no absolute manifestation of anything within an essentially duality-based existence, and when we use the term 'light' we do not mean absolute light, but instead we mean some level of light beyond a minimum marker on the spectrum of light to dark.

Hey folks, here are a few I've recently done in the hopes of alleviating common concerns regarding feeding a cruelty-free, speciesism-free diet to our obligate carnivore friends. No reason to make the pigs and chickens pay for a problem that humans created, and the cats can be healthy and thrive while we're at it! Never before have we been able to "have our cake and eat it too." There are over 150 million cats in America alone (including strays) which makes it the single most numerous mammalian predator species on the continent. Letting cats hunt for themselves is devastating to local ecosystems, and enslaving billions of chickens, pigs, etc to feed them is just making the problem worse (hey, we created a hundred million cats, now we have to enslave a billion pigs and kill them just to keep all these cats alive! herp derp).

I came across this comment the other day: "You shouldn't be so judgmental! Everyone should be allowed to eat whatever they want without worrying about some vegan nut judging them. It's none of your business what I eat! Each to their own I say!"

No!!! Wrong!!!! I'm going to tell you why that's a load of …

You share this world! You share this world with other people! What you do impacts on other beings! Animals. The planet. It's not each to their own, buddy.