Literature Network » Aristotle

Aristotle, the Scale of Nature, and modern attitudes to animals.(In the Company of Animals)

Content courtesy of

From: Social Research
Date: 19950922
Author:Clutton-Brock, Juliet

Animal rights have become an important ethical issue prompting reexamination of the often contradictory attitudes held toward animals. Many modern Western attitudes to animals can be traced back to Aristotle's work on taxonomy. For example, the belief in a hierarchical Scale of Nature, from unicellular organisms at the bottom to humans at the top, is still widespread. Another common belief is that animals exist to benefit humans. Other topics discussed include the four causes in Aristotle, the principle of plenitude, the five predicables, Linnaeus's binomial classification and the ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Aristotle

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.