Theriophily (or animalitarianism) is "the inversion of human and animal traits and the argument that animals are in some way superior to men". The term theriophily was coined by

George Boas George Boas (; 28 August 1891 – 17 March 1980) was a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He received his education at Brown University, obtaining both a BA and MA in philosophy there, after which he studied shortly at ...

, while the term animalitarianism was coined by

Arthur O. Lovejoy Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an American philosophy, philosopher and intellectual history, intellectual historian, who founded the discipline known as the history of ideas with his book ''The Great Chain ...

in the work ''A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas'', in which he explained his "belief that animals are happier, more admirable, more 'normal', or 'natural', than human beings" In his work ''Love for Animals'', Dix Harwood wrote "This much is certain. Between 1700 and 1800, the point of view on man's relations to other living creatures changed".

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

touches upon the subject in '' Studies on the Life and Habits of Animals''.Rochester,in 'A Satyr against Mankind' would rather'be a dog, a monkey or a bear/Or anything but that vain animal/Who is so proud of being rational'.

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

wrote about human inferiority in '' Gulliver's Travels'' and Mark Twain detailed various ways that humans could be shown to be inferior to other animals in

Letters from the Earth ''Letters from the Earth'' is a posthumously published work of American author Mark Twain (1835–1910) collated by Bernard DeVoto. It comprises essays written during a difficult time in Twain's life (1904–1909), when he was deeply in debt an ...

References

Animal rights {{animal-rights-stub