The term rational animal ( Latin: ''animal rationale'' or ''animal rationabile'') refers to a classical definition of humanity or human nature, associated with Aristotelianism.

History

While the Latin term itself originates in

scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translate ...

, it reflects the Aristotelian view of man as a creature distinguished by a rational principle. In the ''

Nicomachean Ethics The ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (; ; grc, Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, ) is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics, the science of the good for human life, which is the goal or end at which all our actions aim. (I§2) The aim of the inquiry is ...

'' 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 to carry out rationally formulated projects. That capacity for deliberative imagination was equally singled out as man's defining feature in '' De anima'' III.11. While seen by Aristotle as a universal human feature, the definition applied to wise and foolish alike, and did not in any way imply necessarily the ''making'' of rational choices, as opposed to the ''ability'' to make them. The Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry defined man as a "mortal rational animal", and also considered animals to have a (lesser) rationality of their own. The definition of man as a rational animal was common in

scholastical philosophy This is a list of philosophers and scholars working in the Christian tradition in Western Europe during the medieval period, including the early Middle Ages. ''See also'' scholasticism.'' __NOTOC__ A *Abélard, Pierre, (1079–1142) *Adam de Wo ...

. Catholic Encyclopedia states that this definition means that "in the system of classification and definition shown in the

Arbor Porphyriana The Tree of Porphyry (also known as ''scala praedicamentalis'') is a classic device for illustrating what is also called a "scale of being". It was suggested—if not first, then most famously in the European philosophical tradition—by the 3rd ...

, man is a

substance Substance may refer to: * Matter, anything that has mass and takes up space Chemistry * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composition * Drug substance ** Substance abuse, drug-related healthcare and social policy diagnosis ...

, corporeal, living,

sentient Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '' sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to ...

, and rational". In Meditation II of '' Meditations on First Philosophy'', Descartes considers and rejects the scholastic concept of the "rational animal":

Shall I say 'a rational animal'? No; for then I should have to inquire what an animal is, what rationality is, and in this one question would lead me down the slope to other harder ones.

Modern use

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

was as aware as any of the irrational forces at work in humankind, but he nevertheless resisted what he called too much “stress on the weakness of the ego in relation to the id and of our rational elements in the faced of the daemonic forces within us”. Neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer, in his work ''An Essay on Man'' (1944), altered Aristotle's definition to label man as a ''

symbolic animal ''Animal symbolicum'' ("symbol-making" or "symbolizing animal") is a definition for humans proposed by the German neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer. The tradition since Aristotle has defined a human being as ''animal rationale'' (a rational animal). Ho ...

''. This definition has been influential in the field of

philosophical anthropology Philosophical anthropology, sometimes called anthropological philosophy, is a discipline dealing with questions of metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person. History Ancient Christian writers: Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo wa ...

, where it has been reprised by Gilbert Durand, and has been echoed in the naturalist description of man as the compulsive communicator. Sociologists in the tradition of

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

distinguish rational behavior (means-end oriented) from irrational, emotional or confused behavior, as well as from traditional-oriented behavior, but recognise the wide role of all the latter types in human life. Ethnomethodology sees rational human behavior as representing perhaps 1/10th of the human condition, dependent on the 9/10ths of background assumptions which provide the frame for means-end decision making. In his ''An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish'', Bertrand Russell argues against the idea that man is rational, saying "Man is a rational animal — so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it."

References

External links

Are we rational animals?
{{Aristotelianism Philosophy of Aristotle Cognition Scholasticism