Innovative Directions in Philosophy of/through Food Appetites for Thought: Philosophers and Food Michel Onfray London: Reaktion Books, 2015 136 pp. $24.95 (paper) Philosophers at Table: On Food and Being Human Raymond D. Boisvert and Lisa Heldke London: Reaktion Books, 2016 197 pp. $22.50 (paper) Appetites for Thought and Philosophers at Table are welcome additions to the steadily growing philosophical literature on food. While the philosophy of food corpus has focused largely on applied issues within food ethics (e.g., debates on GM food, functional food, and related issues in animal and environmental ethics), Michel Onfray, Raymond D. Boisvert, and Lisa Heldke have done excellent work expanding the field in new directions, ultimately inviting the reorientation of philosophy itself through the contemplation of food. Originally published in French in 1989, Appetites for Thought is one of just a few books from the prolific philosopher Michel Onfray that has made its way into English. Onfray takes a historical approach in supporting his thesis that “There is no innocent dietetics, ” navigating chronologically through entertaining discussions of the lives and works of seven key thinkers (which comprise the book’ s seven chapters) in order to illustrate fascinating correlations between their diets and philosophies (p.14). The narrative begins in the fourth century BC with Diogenes. The Greek Cynic actively eschewed even the most fundamental trappings of society (e.g., the use of fire), and the alimentary manifestations of his approach included uncooked, bloody flesh, as well as being open to cannibalism (though Onfray remarks that scholars are uncertain whether he actually experimented with anthropophagy). Acknowledging his own role as food for others, Diogenes requested that, upon his death, his body be thrown outdoors for wild animals to consume him, and some scholars allege that he died from eating raw octopus. Onfray frames eighteenth-century political philosopher Jean- Jacques Rousseau as an intellectual descendant of Diogenes in his embrace of rustic simplicity, pining for a return to the freedom that humanity enjoyed in its origins before evolving toward the shackles of civilization. Rousseau’ s philosophy of food is a deliberate resistance to elaborate gastronomic theory, upholding milk as the most pure and least corrupt of foods, and extolling the many virtues of vegetarianism, which he linked conceptually with pacifism and the state of nature. Known for his ethical theory’ s emphasis on acting from duty and respecting human autonomy and rationality, German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant regarded both gluttony and drunkenness as vices due to their violation of a person’ s own duty to oneself and to society, resulting in an inabil- ity to exercise rationality and self-control. At the same time, Kant was known for his overconsumption of alcohol in his earlier years, and remarked positively on its tendency to encourage frankness and social harmony. Ultimately, Kant appears to endorse an ethics of moderation regarding the consumption of food and beverage, “permitting a use that is not a misuse” (p.43). Socialist utopian theorist Charles Fourier envisioned society’ s move from civilization to a new order that he called Harmony, entailing the reorganization of many human relations, as well as the geography of the world itself. Promoting the liberation of desire and the breaking of societal prohibitions in general, regarding dietary regime Fourier argued for the importance of recognizing and paying homage to the passion of gluttony by making it “the axis around which the social world will turn” (p.53). One avenue for actualizing this is the encouragement and democratization of cooking, as well as the key role of “gastrosophers” (gastronomic philosophers) in crafting dishes that cater to the myriad temperaments of different individuals. Onfray’ s narrative progresses to the late nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche recognized the REVIEW ESSAY | Joey Tuminello GASTRONOMICA: THE JOURNAL OF CRITICAL FOOD STUDIES, VOL. 17, NUMBER 2, PP. 72–75, ISSN 1529-3262, ELECTRONIC ISSN 1533-8622. © 2017 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DIRECT ALL REQUESTS FOR PERMISSION TO PHOTOCOPY OR REPRODUCE ARTICLE CONTENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS’S REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS WEB PAGE, HTTP://WWW.UCPRESS.EDU/JOURNALS.PHP?P=REPRINTS. DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1525/GFC.2017.17.2.72. GASTRONOMICA 72 SUMMER 2017