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Full Idea
It is for lack of reflection on themselves that beasts have no moral qualities.
Gist of Idea
Animals lack morality because they lack self-reflection
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Discourse on Metaphysics [1686], §34)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.43
A Reaction
Interesting, but I think this is false. I would say animals do have a sense of their self, because that is the most basic feature of any mind, but what they lack is second-order thought, that is, ability to reflect on and judge their own beliefs and acts.
| 168 | To understand morality requires a soul [Plato] |
| 5026 | Animals lack morality because they lack self-reflection [Leibniz] |
| 3954 | Immorality is not in the action, but in the deviation of the will from moral law [Berkeley] |
| 5599 | Without God, creation and free will, morality would be empty [Kant] |
| 21415 | Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect [Kant] |
| 2902 | Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche] |
| 20739 | Levinas took 'first philosophy' to begin with seeing the vulnerable faces of others [Levinas, by Aho] |
| 6450 | Morality must be motivating, and not because of pre-moral motives [Nagel] |
| 4284 | All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence [Scruton] |