Alle origini dell’animalismo: il pensiero di Plutarco

The innovativeness and originality of Plutarch’s thought regarding the relationship between animal being and human being is embodied in the affirmation of the moral superiority of animals, which overturns the anthropocentric perspective that links the ability to exercise the ethical option to the human being. The thinker from Chaeronea, in this dialogue, aims primarily to counter the theory, especially Stoic, but also Epicurean, of the "alogy" of animals, that is, of their total irrationality. He wants to demonstrate, first of all, that mammals, birds, reptiles and fish possess innate qualities of intelligence that manifest themselves in learning, memory and problem-solving. The theoretical inversion regarding ethics between humans and animals, which proposes the paradoxical moral superiority of animals, is also realised in the fact that for animals, killing is a necessity for nourishment while for humans it is something unnecessary.