25

‪This article considers the axial (understood as guidelines) and axiological (referring to values) origins of veganism. We aim to highlight veganism’s conceptual structures, the argumentative axes around which values have emerged since the beginning of the movement, as well as showing how they subsist, in explicit or residual ways, in their contemporary manifestations. The discursive reasoning employed across a succession of theological, philosophical, hygienic, and political texts, even before the neologism appeared, translate the main motives that still underpin and organise the movement. Identifying these motives allows us to partially understand the complexity of vegan discourse and how it has acquired a remarkable persuasiveness today.‪