Ethical Veganism as Anti-Intellectualism: Eurocentric White Masculinist Traditions of Intellectualism

The Sistah Vegan Project

James McWilliams wrote a new blog piece called Modest Proposal. He critiques the vegan movement as not self-reflexive and also makes the observation that the movement is rooted in anti-intellectualism. He basically asks if one can make an ethical argument for veganism that is based on intellectualism: the theory that knowledge is wholly derived from reason and rationalization; the theory that emotions cannot produce intellectually rigorous based knowledge systems.

How interesting….

If you have spent any time with academics involved in critical animal studies who practice veganism, you will find a rich canon of intellectually rigorous research that is pro-vegan– some rooted in Eurocentric traditional notions of intellectualism and some not. All of these scholars are very much part of the vegan movement, which is not a monolith, but like any movement, has a plethora of varying perspectives.

I wrote an award winning Masters thesis at Harvard University in 2007. I…

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