Animal Ethics republishes Lewis Gompertz’s Moral inquiries, the first book to defend veganism and antispeciesism, and it’s now free to download on its 200th anniversary

We are happy to announce that we’ve just published a digital version of a landmark work: Lewis Gompertz’s Moral inquiries. This book, a classic in animal ethics, was published 200 years ago, in 1824, and this republication makes it available to everyone. We encourage everyone to read it and share it with others.

This pioneer book was the earliest comprehensive defense of veganism, antispeciesism, egalitarianism, and concern for wild animal suffering (much more than a century before words like “vegan” or “speciesism” were coined!). Its author, Lewis Gompertz, founded some of the first animal organizations to have ever existed — and the first one to oppose all animal exploitation. His Moral inquiries was groundbreaking for the early 19th century and remains relevant and original today.

By making Moral inquiries freely available, we hope to help to restore Gompertz’s rightful place in the history of animal ethics, and also to provide advocates and animal scholars with access to a crucial text that will inspire contemporary discussions about our ethical obligations to other sentient beings

The book can be downloaded here:

Below you can read an introduction to the book.

Lewis Gompertz’s Moral inquiries: the most important animal ethics book until the late 20th century

Lewis Gompertz is one of the pioneers of animal ethics and animal advocacy, and one of the first vegans we know of, more than a century before the term was coined. In particular, his book Moral inquiries is arguably the best book in animal ethics ever written before the last decades of the 20th century. It was certainly the first book to present a systematic defense of veganism and antispeciesism, in addition to addressing other issues such as wild animal suffering and egalitarianism. The ideas explained in the book were surely cutting-edge back in the early 19th century, and in fact, they still are.

The grandfather of the animal movement

Gompertz (1783/1784–1861) was born in London in a family of intellectuals (his brothers include the mathematician Benjamin Gompertz and the poet Isaac Gompertz). He did not have children and focused his adult life on defending animals, in a historical context where this idea was completely new. He could have had an easier life, yet he chose to do his best for nonhuman animals, despite widespread indifference and opposition. He did this through his writings, but also, as we will see next, in two other ways: through his advocacy and as an ingenious inventor.

Creating animal advocacy from scratch

Gompertz was involved in the creation of some of the first animal organizations to have ever existed, including the first one to advocate for what we now would describe as veganism. On June 16, 1824, a meeting was held at the Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in London to found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). This charity aimed to improve the lives of abused and exploited animals, particularly through the employment of inspectors to report cases of cruelty. Gompertz was one of the society’s key figures and a major financial contributor, personally lending funds to the cause.

Despite his dedication, Gompertz faced difficulties because of the SPCA’s financial management and the attitudes of some of its members. In 1826, the society’s secretary, Arthur Broome, was imprisoned for the organization’s debts, and Gompertz took over as Honorary Secretary. Gompertz worked tirelessly to resolve the financial crisis, securing Broome’s release and repaying the society’s debts, contributing with his own money as a donor to keep the society running. In 1832, Gompertz’s relationship with the SPCA became strained and he was eventually forced to quit. The main reason for this was that some of its members, including John Fenner and Thomas Greenwood, were supporters of certain forms of animal exploitation. They disliked the fact that Gompertz spoke out against all forms of harming animals, and that he was consistent with it by living as a vegan.

After his resignation, Gompertz sought to create an alternative organization that would more fully align with his views. He founded the Animals’ Friend Society, which adopted a clear stance against all forms of animal exploitation. The Animals’ Friend Society also published a periodical, Animals’ Friend, in which Gompertz and others wrote about issues such as animal ethics, how to live without exploiting animals, and the emotional lives of animals. The organization outpaced the SPCA in membership and activism. Unfortunately, Gompertz failed to find successors who could continue his work after him. As a result, after several decades of action, the Animals’ Friend Society eventually ceased its activities. But the influence it had in society remained and planted the seeds of the much bigger animal movement that ended up developing in the following century.

Reimagining transportation without exploiting animals

In addition to his work in animal advocacy, Gompertz was also an inventor with a particular interest in mechanical design. His inventions included a mechanical device for treating strokes and an expanding chuck, a tool that became widely used in workshops. But Gompertz’s more significant contributions may have been in the development of the bicycle. In 1821, he designed a hand-crank drive that could be used in the bicycle of Karl Freiherr von Drais, the inventor of the first form of the modern bicycle. Gompertz’s design modified the steering mechanism of the bicycle so that it provided supplementary power to the front wheel, thereby increasing speed and distance without tiring the rider. This innovation was an important step in the development of the bicycle as we know it today. His reason for doing this was his opposition to using animals for transportation. Additionally, he devised innovations to improve railways. He was also a pioneer in this respect, as he foresaw a time when bicycles and trains could be used instead of horses so these animals would not be exploited.

A list and description of his inventions can be found in a book he published in 1851 titled Mechanical inventions and suggestions on land and water locomotion, tooth machinery, and various other branches of theoretical and practical mechanics. The book’s publisher was William Horsell, who in 1849 had also printed and distributed Asenath Nicholson’s book Kitchen philosophy for vegetarians, which is considered to be the first vegan cookbook.¹

The importance of Moral inquiries

Moral inquiries anticipates the arguments of contemporary animal ethicists in many respects, even though the narrative style reflects writing from two centuries ago. Gompertz argues for the moral consideration of sentient beings, and holds that the capacity to suffer, rather than human-like intelligence or abilities, should be the basis for taking someone into account.² He thus argues against the idea that we now know as speciesism — although this term wasn’t coined until 1970 by Richard Ryder. Gompertz also argued in favor of human equality and spoke out for women’s emancipation at a time when doing so was considered outlandish. These are implications of the same principle of granting consideration to anyone who needs it.³

When Moral inquiries was published, there had been other discussions of the moral consideration of nonhuman animals. However, the book was unique in one respect: it rejects animal exploitation in all its forms. No previous book had done this as thoroughly. Gompertz proposes an alternative to exploiting animals that is basically what we now understand as veganism, a term that was only coined in 1944 by Dorothy Morgan and Donald Watson.⁴

Moral inquiries examines not only the consumption of animal flesh but also the use of various products including honey, silk, and horns and bones for ornamentation. Moreover, the book’s approach is not just theoretical. It provides practical suggestions for how individuals could live without exploiting animals, offering early guidelines for what would later become vegan living, and even some explanations about how to cook vegan food.

The arguments against participating in animal exploitation in Moral inquiries resemble those used today, though Gompertz also presents some other ideas. He writes that all ways of harming animals for human convenience are wrong, and claims that the only conceivable case when someone could eat an animal would be if they found the corpse of an animal that had died from natural causes. He also argues that we should not be indifferent toward the natural harms that animals suffer, including those that can cause their deaths. He claims that we should reduce the harms animals suffer, even if we are not the ones who caused them. In this way, he was a pioneer in addressing the problem of wild animal suffering, almost two centuries before the current work done on it by ethicists and scientists. He didn’t know about the many ways to help wild animals that currently exist and could be expanded,⁵ but he already accepted the general principle of doing what is best for animals when we can.

Additionally, Moral inquiries includes discussions of more general problems in moral philosophy that anticipate work that normative ethicists and political theorists only started to seriously address in the last decades of the 20th century. These discussions relate to various problems of distributive justice. When addressing them, Gompertz argues in favor of egalitarianism, the view that one of our ultimate goals should be reducing inequality that’s disadvantageous to those who are worst off.⁶

Finally, the book included some discussions on legislation to reduce harms caused by humans, which were very focused on the immediate context when the book was published (British law during the 1820s). This last part of the book is the least interesting for contemporary readers, as it retains only historical value. The book also has some discussions about how animals were exploited at that time, particularly animals used for transportation, which are no longer ways that most people use animals today.

The book’s title has also aged poorly. While it is typically referred to today simply as Moral inquiries, its complete title at the time of publication was Moral inquiries on the situation of man and of brutes. The use of the expression “man and brutes” to name humans and nonhuman animals is now problematic. It seems especially odd for a book of this kind, even though it was the common language then. However, the biases inherent in such language are actually challenged by the book’s arguments. The key ideas in the book have not aged, and readers will find interesting arguments in its central discussions of the main issues in animal ethics.

Gompertz also published another book on animal ethics in 1852, titled Fragments in defence of animals, and essays on morals, soul, and future state. This second book was a compilation of Gompertz’s writings that expanded on the ideas advanced by Moral inquiries three decades earlier.⁷

Vindicating Gompertz’s memory and the history of animal advocacy

There are accounts that Moral inquiries was known and read in the 19th century: 70 years after its publication, the book is mentioned in Henry Salt’s great book Animals’ rights considered in relation to social progress.⁸ In fact, Moral inquiries is the book Salt cites when he wants to point to someone who challenged the use of animals for human benefit before him. However, this book has not been as influential as it should have been, and in the 20^th century it stopped being read for the most part.⁹ The literature on animal ethics is now very extensive, yet the number of citations this book has received remains disappointingly small.¹⁰ More generally, Gompertz has remained largely forgotten to date, despite his groundbreaking contributions to animal advocacy and moral philosophy. Keeping the memory of a movement’s history, and remembering its pioneers’ work, can be helpful for that movement to learn lessons from the past on how to best attain its goals in the future. In addition, it can help the movement to have a sense of identity that strengthens it, encouraging and motivating efforts.

People concerned about the situation of animals and involved in animal advocacy may sometimes feel discouraged by other people’s lack of interest and concern for animals’ plight, and feel alone in the struggle in defense of animals. It can be inspiring to consider how someone like Gompertz pioneered the cause, paving the way for future animal advocacy in a context where there were very few other people – if any – who were also vegan and opposed speciesism. It can remind us that there is always a chance to make a difference for animals.

In addition, the fact that Gompertz’s work is not more widely known can teach us a lesson about the importance of creating an impact that endures over time. Animal advocacy today is very focused on achieving immediate results. However, time never stops, and the future, including the long-term future, eventually becomes the present for all sentient beings. If we don’t act now, we may fail to prevent very bad future scenarios for them.¹¹ Because of this, having long-term goals is crucial for ensuring that we act in ways today will have effects that last and contribute to the ultimate success of animal advocacy.¹²

However, the main reason for publishing this book is that this is a great book that deserves to be read on its own merit, as it includes arguments that are still useful for understanding how we should act toward nonhuman animals. We believe anyone interested in animal ethics will find it useful.

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