Philosophical Origins of our Attitudes Towards Animals: On the Axiological Status of Animals and Humans

Jacek LEJMAN

Zakład Etyki, Instytut Filozofi i, Wydział Filozofi i i Socjologii, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, Collegium Humanicum, Pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 4, room 335, 20-031 Lublin, Poland Phone: +48 81 5372842 , Poland

Abstract

The author poses the question about the origins of our attitudes to animals. On the basis of numerous source texts and studies, he shows how the axiological status of animals and humans has been perceived in philosophy throughout its history. The author attempts a reconstruction of the contemporary transformation of the manner in which the relation between the human species and the animal world is perceived. Thus he explores the views of both philosophers and modern biologists (oriented ethologically and sociobiologically) regarding the questions of the relation of the Homo sapiens to other animal species, as well as the position of humans in the natural world together with their duties towards animals.

The article also discusses the essence of philosophical humanism conceived of as the principle of moral life and points to its impact on the animal world. In the conclusion, the author points that, despite their apparent originality, most of the currents of thought as well as individual ideas recurring in works by ecologists and environmental ethicists draw on some earlier spiritual sources, which precisely for this reason deserve being recalled.

Keywords:

axiology, animal, human, philosophy, ecology, ethology, sociobiology