Gyvūno sampratos formavimasis senovės graikų mąstyme
The formation of the concept of animal in the Ancient Greek thought

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article attempts to elucidate the unique features of the concept of animal in the ancient Greek thought and to trace the main stages of its formation, mainly focusing on the development of various philosophical meanings of this concept. The analysis starts with the Greek understanding of animality and the animal as such (as a distinct ontological type) in the pre-philosophical stage of Greek culture, bringing to the fore the fundamental differences between the ancient Greek and contemporary notions of animality. After some introductory remarks that argue for the importance to contemporary continental philosophy of ancient Greek understanding of animality, the author turns attention to those ancient Greek and Latin words, denoting animal and animality, as well as their specific shades of meaning, that are instrumental in our appreciation of the pre-philosophical origins of the concept of animal. The main constituent features of animality are discussed, from the Greek perspective, in relation to human beings, gods, and animals “proper”. Besides the relevant linguistic evidence, the author presents some insightful examples, related to the theme of animality, from the Greek literature of archaic and Classical periods. After that, the analysis focuses on the understanding of animality in the Presocratics, especially Heraclitus, mostly in terms of the relation between human beings and animals, which is modeled on the relation between the gods and the humans. The subsequent two chapters, constituting the main part of the article, are devoted to the various philosophical meanings of animality in the Platonic and Aristotelian corpus. The Platonic understanding of any complex entity, be it the cosmos as a whole, or various manifestations of human culture (such as the works of visual arts, speeches or written texts), as an organism of one sort or another, is shown to be based on Plato’s understanding of animality. For example, in the Timaeus, the whole cosmos created by the demiurge is depicted, by way of a philosophical myth, as a divine animal of cosmic proportions. The organic features of speeches and philosophical texts, discussed at length in the Phaedrus, are also shown to be based on the Platonic conception of animality. The Platonic understanding of the relation between animality and Being is discussed in the context of some of the most important Platonic dialogues of the middle and late periods. The Aristotelian notion of animality is elucidated mostly in relation to Aristotle’s understanding of the soul based on the tripartite classification (and, in some cases, structural division) of all souls. This classification, which includes, as its three constituent types, the vegetative soul, the animal soul, and the rational soul, is shown to be of paramount importance to Aristotelian metaphysics, biology, theology, and teleology. The author also discusses the importance to Aristotelian philosophy of the Stagirite’s empirical research in the field of biology. The closing brief remarks are focused on the importance of the ancient Greek understanding of animal and animality to our own search for humanity and the fulfillment of hidden human potential, as well as to contemporary philosophical thinking about animal and animality.

• Details
• Contents