Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer writes:
“It can truly be said: Men are the devils of the earth, and that animals are the tormented souls. This is the consequence of the installation scene in the Garden of Eden” (Essays 187). Schopenhauer describes Adam as the first zoologist, and opines that “the Creator goes on to appoint him the first professor of zoology by commissioning him to give the animals the names they shall thenceforth bear, which is once more only a symbol of their total dependence on him, i.e. their total lack of rights” (1970: 187). He argues that “Another fundamental error of Christianity is that it has in an unnatural fashion sundered humankind from the animal world to which it essentially belongs and now considers mankind alone as of any account, regarding the animals as no more than things.” [Schopenhauer’s emphases] (1970: 187)
According to Schopenhauer, writing in the mid-nineteenth century: "It is obviously high time that the Jewish conception of nature, at any rate, in regard to animals, should come to an end in Europe, and that the eternal being which, as it lives in us, also lives in every animal should be recognized as such, and as such treated with care and consideration" [Schopenhauer’s emphases] (1970: 188).
In his essay "On the Basis of Morals", Schopenhauer writes that "Compassion for animals is so closely associated with goodness of character that one may confidently assert that whoever is cruel to animals could not be a good person" (2010: 242).
References
Schopenhauer, A., 1970, Essays and Aphorisms, trans. R.J. Hollingdale, London: Penguin Classics.
Schopenhauer, A,. 2010, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics, trans. D.E. Cartwright and E.E. Erdmann, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
“It can truly be said: Men are the devils of the earth, and that animals are the tormented souls. This is the consequence of the installation scene in the Garden of Eden” (Essays 187). Schopenhauer describes Adam as the first zoologist, and opines that “the Creator goes on to appoint him the first professor of zoology by commissioning him to give the animals the names they shall thenceforth bear, which is once more only a symbol of their total dependence on him, i.e. their total lack of rights” (1970: 187). He argues that “Another fundamental error of Christianity is that it has in an unnatural fashion sundered humankind from the animal world to which it essentially belongs and now considers mankind alone as of any account, regarding the animals as no more than things.” [Schopenhauer’s emphases] (1970: 187)
According to Schopenhauer, writing in the mid-nineteenth century: "It is obviously high time that the Jewish conception of nature, at any rate, in regard to animals, should come to an end in Europe, and that the eternal being which, as it lives in us, also lives in every animal should be recognized as such, and as such treated with care and consideration" [Schopenhauer’s emphases] (1970: 188).
In his essay "On the Basis of Morals", Schopenhauer writes that "Compassion for animals is so closely associated with goodness of character that one may confidently assert that whoever is cruel to animals could not be a good person" (2010: 242).
References
Schopenhauer, A., 1970, Essays and Aphorisms, trans. R.J. Hollingdale, London: Penguin Classics.
Schopenhauer, A,. 2010, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics, trans. D.E. Cartwright and E.E. Erdmann, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.