Understanding the history and philosophy of Veganism

A very short overview of the movement.

Veganism is a lifestyle choice with the ahimsa principle at its core. A vegan believes in respecting, and not exploiting, all sentient beings. Vegans refrain from consuming animal-based products like milk, cheese, wool, honey, gelatin etc. Leslie J Cross defined veganism as “the principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man”, a definition which he later amended to “seeking an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man.”

The History

Even though it came to the forefront of ethical debates only recently, veganism is not a novel system. In fact, the idea of veganism is almost 2000 years old, traces of it being found in ancient Indian and eastern Mediterranean cultures. Veganism is considered to be an extreme form of vegetarianism. The famous philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras used to practice and propagate what can be called today a vegetarian diet. Disciples of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism also support vegetarianism because it upholds their core principle of non-violence. Since then, it has been tied to the animal-rights movement and the climate change movement.

Etymology

‘Vegan’, as a term, was coined in 1944 by Dorothy Morgan and Donald Watson, the founders of The Vegan Society, the oldest vegan organization in the world. ‘Vegan’ is composed of the first three and two last letters of the term ‘vegetarian’, as Watson claimed it to be “the beginning and the end of vegetarian”. Interestingly, other prospective terms were ‘dairyban’, ‘vitan’ and ‘benevore’.

Rise in Popularity

Veganism is not an uncommon lifestyle choice in the present age. It has a lot of factors in its favor, like the end of speciesism and animal inequality, and reduction of environmental damage. Along with these, a vegan diet is also believed to be a healthier alternative over other types of diets.

The Bottom Line — Ethical Case For Veganism

For me, the appeal of veganism lies in the fact that it seems ethically right. If I can lessen an animal’s suffering simply by changing my diet and my lifestyle (not even drastically, but by just not wearing wool or eating yoghurt) then why not?