Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Animal Rights and Wrongs' and 'Elements of Geometry'

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3 ideas

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / c. Role of emotions
An emotion is a motive which is also a feeling [Scruton]
     Full Idea: An emotion is a motive which is also a feeling.
     From: Roger Scruton (Animal Rights and Wrongs [1996], p.17)
     A reaction: What is a motive without feeling? A universalised judgment, perhaps. Which comes first, the motivation or the feeling?
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / c. Animal rationality
Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji]
     Full Idea: Aristotle, and also the Stoics, denied rationality to animals. …The Platonists, the Pythagoreans, and some more independent Aristotelians, did grant reason and intellect to animals.
     From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Richard Sorabji - Rationality 'Denial'
     A reaction: This is not the same as affirming or denying their consciousness. The debate depends on how rationality is conceived.
Do we use reason to distinguish people from animals, or use that difference to define reason? [Scruton]
     Full Idea: The difficulty of defining reason suggests that while pretending to use it to define the difference between humans and animals, they are actually using that difference to define reason.
     From: Roger Scruton (Animal Rights and Wrongs [1996], p.19)
     A reaction: Too pessimistic. We are perfectly capable of saying there is no significant difference between us and an alien. We have obvious abilities, which we can partly specify.