The word “diet” derives from Greek diaita, a synonym for bios, meaning a way of life, the word used by Plato to describe the lifestyle of frugality and restraint that citizens of the First City bequeath as an inheritance to their descendants. I find it remarkable how Plato links diet to the durability of a stable society. Like Plato’s pigs, food in Plato’s First City is a metaphor. But there is no such thing as just a metaphor. The role food choice plays in the way a society is structured and organized stands for something other than itself, which is, I submit, for Plato, something akin to what we would call sustainability, what he calls “Justice,” namely mutual, reciprocal interdependence amongst citizens who use natural resources measuredly.
Food choices have consequences, whether in the fourth century BCE or in 2021. Plato seems keenly aware of this. The whole Republic hinges, in a very real sense, on Glaucon’s objection to a food choice. Per Plato’s account, the vegetarian frugality of the City for Pigs provides a buffer against territorial expansion and war, of the sort Athens itself had recently experienced in the Peloponnesian conflict with Sparta. Seen in that light, it is a form of enlightened self-interest and preservation. Read More