Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit Subscriptions.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

You can register for a free account to have four complimentary articles per month. We will occasionally email you a newsletter, from which you can unsubscribe at any time. We do not sell personal data or otherwise disclose personal information to other organisations.

Tallis in Wonderland

The Possibility-Bearing Animal

Raymond Tallis explores a twilight zone.

There have been many ways in which philosophers have tried to characterise our distinctive human nature, and some are more convincing than others. Aristotle’s definition of man as ‘the rational animal’ invites wild laughter in the light of what we often get up to individually and collectively. Perhaps ‘the rationalising animal’ may be closer to the mark, given our capacity to justify the most destructive, counter-productive, and wicked behaviour. Homo sapiens – the title science has conferred on our most recent edition – which translates as ‘wise man’, also seems open to challenge, given that our wisdom, such as it is, is manifested somewhat intermittently.

The definition of man as ‘the speaking animal’ is less vulnerable.

…