A Rational Animal and Other Philosophical Essays on the Nature of Man. Antony Flew

Isis ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-279
Keyword(s):  
Rational Animal

The Distinctive Unity of the Human Being in Aquinas

2021 ◽  
pp. 580-595
Author(s):  
Therese Scarpelli Cory
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Rational Animal ◽  
The Core ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores the fundamental vision of the human being at the core of Aquinas’ anthropology. Aquinas has typically been construed as defending a fundamentally ‘Aristotelian’ vision of the human being. I show that this label has generated a skewed reading of Aquinas. Accordingly, this chapter does not lay claim to identify what it would take for an anthropology to be authentically ‘Thomistic’. Instead, it makes a proposal concerning what I argue is the ‘guiding vision’ of Aquinas’ anthropology: namely the ‘distinctive unity of the human’. Aquinas prioritizes this notion of distinctive unity in the different areas of his anthropology. I explore how this distinctive unity is expressed (a) in Aquinas’ account of the human soul as the ‘horizon’ of the bodily and spiritual worlds, and (b) in his definition of the human being as ‘rational animal’.

Biology and the rational animal

The Sciences ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 7 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 28-32
Author(s):  
JOSHUA LEDERBERG
Keyword(s):  
Rational Animal

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Angela Dalle Vacche
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Irrational Belief ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Rational Animal ◽  
Automatic Response

Bazin’s work explores a key question: What is a human, in contrast to an animal, a plant, an object or a machine? A human is simultaneously a rational animal and an irrational being. Human irrationality can lead to cruelty and madness unless it becomes creativity through art, or it turns into spirituality through irrational belief. Well aware that a human being can reduce the Other to an animal or an object, Bazin’s anti-anthropocentric ethos upholds empathy and coexistence. At the same time, Bazin approves of the anthropomorphic nature of human perception. For him, anthropomorphism is an automatic response that taps into the unavoidable contiguity of humans, animals, and things. Notorious for his dislike of Soviet montage, Bazin’s essays on children’s fairy tales, animal documentaries, and Robert Montgomery’s Lady in The Lake (1947) prove that, in his film theory, editing is as important as camera movement in filmmaking.

Defining Man as Animal Religiosum in English Religious Writing ca. 1650–ca. 1700

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. W. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Rational Animal ◽  
Cambridge Platonism ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Subsequent Incorporation ◽  
The Continuum

This article surveys the emergence and usage of the redefinition of man not as animal rationale (rational animal) but as animal religiosum (religious animal) by numerous English theologians between 1650 and 1700. Across the continuum of English Protestant thought, human nature was being redescribed as unique due to its religious, not primarily its rational, capabilities. This article charts said appearance as a contribution to debates over man's relationship with God; then its subsequent incorporation into the discussion over the theological consequences of arguments in favor of animal rationality, as well as its uses in anti-atheist apologetics; and then the sudden disappearance of the definition of man as animal religiosum at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In doing so, the article hopes to make a useful contribution to our understanding of changing early modern understandings of human nature by reasserting the significance of theological writing in the dispute over the relationship between humans and beasts. As a consequence, it offers a more wide-ranging account of man as animal religiosum than the current focus on “Cambridge Platonism” and “Latitudinarianism” allows.

Rational Animal-Political Animal: Nature and Convention in Human Speech and Politics

1976 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Berns
Keyword(s):  
Human Speech ◽  
Rational Animal ◽  
Traditional Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In The Beginning

In the beginning of his Politics Aristotle argues that “man is by nature a political animal.” In fact man is more a political animal than any herding animal, for “man alone of the animals has speech,” “man alone of the animals has reason,” “man alone of the animals has logos.” In other contexts the word logos can also be translated as word, account, argument, or ratio. Logos is connected with the verb legōo which means to speak and to gather, to pick out, to select, to count. The English words collect, select, and elect are related to the same verb. Logosis selected, elected, and chosen speech, meaningful speech, thoughtful speech. The traditional definition of man as the rational animal, stemming from Aristotle, goes back to this statement, that man alone of the animals possesses logos, possesses thoughtful speech. Aristotle goes on to say:

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document