Meaning of Man is a rational animal
What is Man is a rational animal:
"Man is a rational animal" is a phrase attributed to Aristotle (384-322 a. de C.) and is a continuation of his theory "man is a political animal", both from the work Politics.
Aristotle affirms in his work Politics that man is essentially animal, social, rational and political due to the three components that constitute man: his nature, his habits and the reason for him. However, that man is the only rational animal does not mean that he is not irrational or acts irrationally.
Nature is the animal part of man that resembles the rest of the gregarious animals with organized systems.
Habits reflect the animal and social part. The reason is present in the language or the word (logos), in order to "Manifest what is convenient and harmful, as well as what is fair and unfair", that is, the distinction between good and evil that differentiates us from other animals.
“The reason why man is a social being, more than any gregarious animal is evident. Nature, as we say, does nothing in vain, and man is the only animal that has a word. Well, the voice is a sign of pain and pleasure, and that is why the other animals also possess it (...). But the word is to manifest the convenient and the harmful, as well as the just and the unjust.
Politics, of Aristotle
See also:
- "Man is a political animal"
- "Man is a social being by nature"
Analysis of the phrase "man is a rational animal"
Philosophers define concepts such as "what is man" with a logic of thoughts. The construction of a definition requires, according to Aristotle, to begin by looking for everything that defines the concept in general, for example, man is an animal, to later be constituted by his differences, in the case of man it is the reason for him, the specific difference being what determines that it is exclusive to the concept.
Reason comprises a series of attributes and capacities, including the capacity for abstraction. Abstraction is defined as the ability that men have to “Get away from the present, the immediate and the particular. The human preserves his past and thinks about the future directing his behavior ". The rational animal manages to overcome adversity reaching universal concepts such as Justice.
In addition, Aristotle considers that the soul of man is divided into different parts, which are characterized by being rational and irrational:
- The vegetative faculty or soul is an example of that irrational part that men share with other animals, and is in charge of basic biological processes.
- The appetitive faculty or soul is both rational and irrational and has to do with desires and inner knowledge.
- Finally, it is the intellectual faculty or soul that is exclusively human and is expressed through the desire to reason and understand the world.
Finally, the phrase "man is a rational animal" should not be confused with Rationalism. Rationalism is the philosophical doctrine of the seventeenth century that affirms that reason is above experience, and whose main defender is the French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650).
See also All about Plato: biography, contributions and works of the Greek philosopher.
