The Virtues of the Table

How to Eat and Think

Paperback | 1 January 2015

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An entertaining and thought-provoking look at the food on our plates, and what it can teach us about being human, from the author of The Pig That Wants to be Eaten.

How we eat, farm and shop for food is not only a matter of taste. Our choices regarding what we eat involve every essential aspect of our human nature: the animal, the sensuous, the social, the cultural, the creative, the emotional and the intellectual. Thinking seriously about food requires us to consider our relationship to nature, to our fellow animals, to each other and to ourselves. So can thinking about food teach us about being virtuous, and can what we eat help us to decide how to live?

From the author of The Ego Trick and The Pig that Wants to be Eaten comes a thought-provoking exploration of our values and vices. What can fasting teach us about autonomy? Should we, like Kant, 'dare to know' cheese? Should we take media advice on salt with a pinch of salt? And can food be more virtuous, more inherently good, than art?

Industry Reviews

"Julian Baggini has that rare but wonderful gift of being able to be at once profound and highly entertaining. This remarkable book combines the pleasures of the table with those of philosophy, and once again this most engaging of philosophers has achieved a perfect balance. Marvellous." -Alexander McCall Smith

"He combines scrupulous argument with fastidious respect for common sense." -Wall Street Journal

"Baggini's The Virtues of the Table is a virtuoso feast for the mind and soul. A lively, thought provoking read. Bite-sized but filling, this delightful volume is sure to satisfy the philosopher and foodie in us all." -Francine Segan, author, The Philosopher's Kitchen

"Baggini expertly dismantles self-congratulatory assumptions about the evils of large industry and chain restaurants or the superiority of organic food and local eating" -Steven Poole, Guardian

Thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking." -Irish Independent

"This is interesting stuff and shows Baggini at his best, drawing from a glorious range of sources to produce engaging thought." -Alex Renton, Observer

"Baggini brilliantly picks apart the contradictions and inherent hypocrisies of the 'new food orthodoxies'.... Even-handed to the last -Roger Lewis, The Times

"A great success." -Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph

"Each chapter ends with a mouth-watering description, not strictly a recipe, of how to prepare a wholesome treat. A book that stimulates mind and palate." -Tom Moriarty, Irish Times

"Never dry or over-academic, leavening reason with wit. Several writers have attempted philosophies of food. This philosopher does a better job and with more humour" -Tim Hayward 'Books of the Year, ' -Financial Times

"A thought-provoking and entertaining foray into food." -Mail on Sunday

"[Baggini's] most appealing book yet... an enlightening work of practical philosophy very much grounded in the real world" -Herald

"Well-argued with bags of humorous reflections, ethical dilemmas and astute observations and will make you see your food choices in a new light." -Julia Richardson, Daily Mail

"Enlightening and provocative -Irish Examiner

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