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Society & Reason

Humans, the Believing Animals

Aristotle says humans are rational animals but Kevin Currie-Knight argues that our capacity for belief is even more fundamental.

I think Western philosophy makes a mistake whenever it follows Aristotle’s definition of humans as ‘rational animals’. Aristotle argued that unlike lower animals, humans have a rational soul, and that (although humans can surely ignore or overlook it) this rational soul is what separates humans from those lower animals. Just as Plato’s Socrates told us that the examined life – examined by reason – is the life worth living, Aristotle similarly concludes that the highest form of life for humans, who have rational souls, is the contemplative life.

I think Aristotle was wrong about humans being primarily rational animals. This is not because human irrationality proves that we aren’t rational.

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