Tua Korhonen and Erika Ruonakoski. Human and Animal in Ancient Greece: Empathy and Encounter in Classical Literature.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32028/jga.v3i.546Abstract
Can a firm line be drawn between man and beast? If so, on what grounds? And what distinguishing feature sets man apart from all other creatures? These questions, summarized in the so-called ‘question of the animal’, features prominently in philosophical debates throughout antiquity. In particular, Aristotle and the Stoics made the case for a strong dividing line that separates man from animal, invoking numerous human attributes – speech, reason, justice, morality, to name just a few – that are allegedly specific to man and man only (see in detail Sorabji).
References
Heath, J. 2005. The Talking Greeks: Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kindt, J. 2017. Capturing the Ancient Animal: Human/Animal Studies and the Classics. JHS 137: 213-25
Newmyer, S. 2006. Animal, Rights, and Reason in Plutarch and Modern Ethics. New York: Routledge
Osborne, C. 2007. Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers: Humanity and the Humane in Ancient Philosophy and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Sorabji, R. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals: The Origins of the Western Debate. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
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