“Plutarch’s (Animal) Lives and the Matter of Eating”
Plutarch (ca. 45–120 CE) wrote about the virtues of historical
people. In a similar vein, consider the merits of wild and domestic animals who
are essentially without vice and do not seek to control the bodies or minds of
others. Truth is in small lives, not necessarily in the history of mighty men.
Therefore, we can see among our nonhuman relatives the virtues of generosity,
patience, and forgiveness. Can we say the same of many people who abuse animals
and only perceive them as food? In the words of renowned classicist Edith
Hamilton, “Plutarch was the first man to write about treating animals kindly” (Plutarch
vol. 1, xvi). A key to Plutarch is that he focuses on greatness of character or
doing good in spite of circumstances; the emphasis is not on power. In
contrast, place that idea next to big game trophy hunters or circus/entertainment
animal producers, as only a few instances.
What is the necessity of life? After reflection, one comes
to realize it’s the same for plants, animals, insects, and humans (even
microbes) – to survive and pass along genes. What then is the ethical business
of life? That is, contemplate who among all living species evinces truth,
goodness, and tolerance over militaristic or corporate control of others. Plutarch
questions why one would put to her lips dead flesh she’s implicit in killing. Corpses
have become food in the human ethos. He asks how one could eat that being who
only just before slaughter was communicating, walking, and living in animated
consciousness. Given that picture, imagine how horrified he’d be with concentrated
animal feeding operations. Nonetheless, about two thousand years ago Plutarch
says that for humans, animals as food contradicts nature and is unnecessary,
compared with obligate carnivores. For example, humans do not eat lions or
wolves, he says. Instead, we kill animals who are, in his words, harmless and
gentle.
Nature gives life to animals, and we rob them of that vitality
for our pleasure, not for our sustenance. Moreover, how much food is wasted
uselessly, notes Plutarch, in the feeding of animals whose bodies are later
often discarded partly uneaten. We are not built as carnivores, Plutarch avers.
How could a human, he asks, entirely eat with little bites a cow or pig while
it’s still alive. Rather than possessing beaks, claws, talons, or large teeth
to gnaw raw flesh, we violently employ mallets, machines, knives, and guns. Furthermore,
the dead animal must be butchered, cooked, and seasoned so meticulously for
consumption that it’s not as it was when alive; it has been deceptively
transformed. We see this dark shadow in how parents misinform their children about
the origins of hamburgers, chicken nuggets, or hot dogs.
If, as Plutarch asks, meat is delectable, why then must we
treat it with vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, olive oil, wine, herbs, spices,
cheese, etc.? He intimates how such cooking and piquant preparations actually embalm
the animal for human ingestion. Plutarch sees the problem not in the stomach
(or physiology) but in the temperament of greed (or mind) that is willing to torture
animals and fatten them as human food. Where he sees and queries, most of us
simply veil our eyes and follow a custom. Yet, habits can be modified and improved.
Preceding much contemporary animal studies (to say nothing
of Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, etc.), Plutarch postulates that animals have
“souls” in their intelligence, feelings, and imaginations building from the
ideas of Pythagoras and Empedocles who say justice is fair treatment of other
living beings. As with tyrants, many people wield force over animals.
Anticipating Immanuel Kant, Plutarch perspicaciously asserts that cruelty to
animals corrodes one’s moral character; he goes further by suggesting that harming
animals is a form of celebratory lawlessness against nature. Whose disposition
and hands, we ask, will continue to be stained by disregard for all life forms?
Who among us is willing to change ways?
References
Hamilton, Edith. Introduction. Plutarch: Selected Lives
and Essays. Louise Ropes Loomis, trans. Roslyn, NY: Walter J. Black, 1951.
vii-xxiv.
Plutarch. “The Eating of Meat.” Plutarch: Selected Lives
and Essays. Louise Ropes Loomis, trans. Roslyn, NY: Walter J. Black, 1951.
Vol. 2, 333-339.
- Gregory F. Tague, Ph.D. and Fredericka A. Jacks
Copyright©2025 by Gregory F. Tague. All Rights Reserved. This post was generated by human brains and not by machine AI algorithms. Pixabay image by Pezibear.
