Philosophy has often been criticized for privileging the abstract. This volume attempts to remedy that situation. Focusing on one of the most concrete of human concerns, food, it argues for the existence of a philosophy of food. It provides various approaches to the subject matter, offering readings of a number of texts.

Philosophy has often been criticized for privileging the abstract; this volume attempts to remedy that situation. Focusing on one of the most concrete of human concerns, food, the editors argue for the existence of a philosophy of food. The collection provides various approaches to the subject matter, offering new readings of a number of texts - religious, philosophical, anthropological, culinary, poetic, and economic. Included are readings ranging from Plato's "Phaedo and Verses of Sen-No-Rikyu" to Peter Singer's "Becoming a Vegetarian" and Jean-Franiois Revel's "Culture and Cuisine". This reader will have particular appeal for philosophers working in social theory, feminist theory, and environmental ethics, and for those working on alternative approaches to such traditional subject areas as epistemology, aesthetics, and metaphysics.

Acknowledgments
Introduction:
Deane W. Curtin and Lisa M. Heldke
Section One
Deane W. Curtin:
Food/Body/Person
Denise Levertov:
Matins (excerpt)
Plato:

from PHAEDO
Susan Bordo:
Anorexia Nervosa:
Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture
Kim Chernin:
Confessions of an Eater
Kelly Oliver:
Nourishing the Speaking Subject:
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Abominable Food and Women
Maria Lugones:
Playfulness, World-Traveling, and Loving Perception
David J. Kalupahana:
The Indian Background, The BuddhaOs Conception of Personhood
Anna S. Meigs:
Food Rules and the Traditional Sexual Ideology
Nancy Willard:
How to Stuff a Pepper
Section Two
Deane W. Curtin:
Recipes for Values
Jean-Francois Revel:
From Culture and Cuisine
Dogen:
Fushuku-Hamop(Meal-time Regulations)
Sen-no-rikyu:
Verses of Sen-No-Rikyu
Calvin Trillin:
From American Fried:
Adventures of a Happy Eater
Peter Singer:
Becoming a Vegetarian
From the Rig Veda:
The Two Full of Butter
From the Bible: Genesis 1-3
From the Bible:
Leviticus 11:1-47
Section Three
Lisa M.
Heldke:
Foodmaking as a Thoughtful Practice
Plato:
from Gorgias
Al Sicherman:
The Perfect Pie
Patrick Suppes:
From Probabilistic Metaphysics
Jean-Francois Revel:
from Culture and Cuisine
Lisa M. Heldke:
Recipes for Theory Making
Carol J. Adams:
from The Sexual Politics of Meat:
A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory
Buffalo Bird Woman:
from Buffalo Bird WomanOs Garden
Dogen:
Tenzo Kyokun (Instruction for the Tenzo)
Audre Lorde:
from Zami:
A New Spelling of My Name
Verta Mae Smart-Grosvenor:
from Vibration Cooking: or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
Section Four
Lisa M. Heldke:
Food Politics, Political Food
Anne Buchanan:
Myths About Hunger
Vandana Shiva:
Development, Ecology, and Women
Bernice Johnson Reagon:
Are My Hands Clean?
Joyce Carol Oates:
Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money, American Independence
Jonathan Swift:
A Modest Proposal
Wes Jackson: Meeting the Expectations of the Land
Diane Di Prima:
Revolutionary Letter #42, Revolutionary Letter #55
Mary Moran:
Thanksgiving Dinner During Pelting Season
Wendell Berry:
The Pleasures of Eating
Index