Rozumne zachowania zwierząt w relacji Marka Tulliusza Cycerona

Abstract

Having analysed Cicero’s opinions about wild animals demonstrated in some of his works (De finibus bonorum et malorum; De natura deorum; Tusculanae disputationes), we may conclude that on the one hand a human as a rational being is definitely opposed to other living creatures that just follow their carnal instincts, on the other hand even among representatives of various species of animals one can observe behaviour to some extent rational, or even “ethical”, that make them similar to human beings. We may explain this phenomenon with the concept based on the Stoic doctrine of rational or even somehow divine character of nature that contains in itself elements of gradation, and allows the presence of divine ratio in particular beings to differ in intensity, what locates animals in the hierarchy of beings slightly lower than the humans.