Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
While the Latin term itself originates in scholasticism, it reflects the Aristotelian view of man as a creature distinguished by a rational principle.In the Nicomachean Ethics I.13, Aristotle states that the human being has a rational principle (Greek: λόγον ἔχον), on top of the nutritive life shared with plants, and the instinctual life shared with other animals, i. e., the ability ...
Nevertheless, he denied animals rationality and moral equality. "Plants are created for the sake of animals," he wrote, "and animals for the sake of men." [8] Aristotle argued that humans were the "masters" in his created hierarchical structure based upon their rational powers. [7]
Various theorists even see rationality as the essence of being human, often in an attempt to distinguish humans from other animals. [ 6 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] However, this strong affirmation has been subjected to many criticisms, for example, that humans are not rational all the time and that non-human animals also show diverse forms of intelligence.
Porphyry argues that there is a moral obligation to extend justice to animals because they are rational beings. He discusses societies that have been historically vegetarian, the implications of metempsychosis (transmigration of the soul), and offers arguments against animal sacrifice. Porphyry directs his discourse towards philosophers, and ...
A related counterargument from Roderick Long is that a being can obtain moral agency by developing a rational capacity, and from there on has full moral agency even if this capacity is lost or diminished: That is why a cow has no rights, though a human being reduced to the mental level of a cow does have them.
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth independent of their utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the same consideration as similar interests of human beings. [2]
Image credits: an1malpulse #5. Animal campaigners are calling for a ban on the public sale of fireworks after a baby red panda was thought to have died from stress related to the noise.
Aristotle placed human beings at the top of nature's scale of being. Because animals lack reason, he said, they are by nature instruments for human use. But there were other philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome who were more sympathetic to animals, some maintaining that animals do exercise a degree of reason and are owed gentle treatment.