On the Irrationality of Animals and the Proportion of Their Bodies to Their Individual Nature

Concerning the irrationality of animals, Nemesios says the following. “I know that God has implanted in each animal not a rational but a natural understanding; and in some he has implanted cunning in order both to avoid present dangers and to guard against future ones; that animals act naturally and not rationally is clear from the fact that each species of animal does the same thing likewise, and do not preserve in their multitude different actions, but according to one impulse the whole species is moved; for every hare is tricked similarly and every wolf craftily deceives, and every ape imitates similarly; which is not seen in man. For myriad are the ways of human actions, for the rational is free and self-determined. Whence not one and the same work to all men, as to each species of other animals. By nature alone are these moved; but those moved by nature are similarly in all. Rational actions are different in different persons, and not of necessity the same in all. The sheep indeed in Scripture

Is inferior, because it does not have its own understanding, so as to find pasture and drink unless someone the shepherd tends it. Many of the animals are also near human understanding; and see the land hedgehog, constructing two passages in its burrow opposing both the south wind and the north; and so the irrational animal is moved by natural reason to such things. Nor are animals self-determined, as also says John of Damascus, because nor are they rational; for truly all rational nature has self-determination inherent in it. For what will the rational possess if its nature does not reason in a self-determined way? The Creator has sown in the irrational animals the natural desire for the maintenance of its own nature, moving them necessarily; for they lacking reason can neither lead, but are led by the natural desire. Whence whenever desire arises, immediately also the impulse toward action. Neither by reason, nor by will, nor by reflection, nor by judgment do they use. Whence neither as pursuing virtue is it praised and blessed, nor as committing vice is it punished. But the rational nature has the natural desire moved, but drawn out from the rational and governed; of which reason the privilege is self-determined will, which we indeed call a natural movement in the rational. Wherefore also as pursuing virtue it is praised and blessed and as committing vice it is punished.”

The virtues of animals are natural, because they are proportionate to the constitution of the body; “to carnivorous animals, says the same author, divine providence fitted sharp teeth; such was their need for the kind of food; but the half-equipped with teeth; with many and various store-chambers of foods prepared; for he gave some to find the food initially and simply to refine it, to swallow again contracted, as the land animal allotted to rumination, to be customary to the one being fed. But also with the very weapons have animals been aroused against one another; according to the kinds of souls, as Aristotle says, God also gives the formations of the bodies and their energies; for instance, to the rabbit and the deer being cowardly in soul, he gave speed, that they might escape the hands of hunters. To the pig, being bestial and voracious, he gave rolling tusks. To the bull he gave horns for safety. To the lion teeth and claws; likewise to the carnivorous birds sharp feathers, a hooked beak and all that contributes to the wholeness of the body toward the needs of the soul.” Did he neglect to grant them the necessary knowledge for the purpose of their existence?

The virtues accorded to animals are so numerous and varied that one marvels at the multitude and the variety. The same amazement is awakened also by the multitude of the virtues of the plant kingdom. Who can deny a proportionate understanding in the plant kingdom to that of animals? There exist plants, just as there exist animals, wise in their kind and prudent; there exist plants and trees carnivorous whose motion and other virtues are common to the carnivorous animals, and in no way are they inferior; some are as sensitive as the most sensitive of animals; some are pleased more in the sun than in shadow, and others turn to water more than to dry land, and others support their existence epicgrow roots from the branches, in order that as columns they may bear the weight of the branches, others direct their roots through the most irregular paths, in order that they find the food suitable to them. Who then, being a careful observer, does not acknowledge that he finds in plants as well as in animals a sense of love and affection; who does not see the sensation which they possess of the changes of the seasons of the year? What shall we say also concerning the divinatory experience by which they know beforehand the dryness or much rain according to the hours of the year, and according to their prognosis they bear fruit? If one carefully examines the plant kingdom, he will not find fewer arguments from the animal kingdom provided to support rationality; of the plant kingdom manifests itself also in its kinship relation to the animal kingdom, by which it is rather supported. Thorough study can persuade every educated investigator about this. Is it therefore possible and rational that in trees and plants, and in general all that has animal or plant existence, all being that dies and is born, are beings rational? Oh! This admission would make the thing much more absurd than wonderful. Reduction to absurdity teaches us that the providence of God, by which the will of God that the world should exist is expressed, this manifests itself in all, under all the various forms of the all-wise understanding, of the various existences ascended to the orders of animals and plants, and sustains all things.

Animals therefore are irrational, and the providence of God, or rather the will of their existence, sustains them in being. How clearly the wisdom of the Creator was shown in the preservation of irrational nature! How plainly did it arrange all things and order all things! What animal could have adorned itself not having the innate instinct unfolding according to the periods of its life? Surely none, for being unsuitable for mutual teaching and training both through the lack of reason and of the necessary time and the unfitness to this of the organs of the body and through the lack of the means for teaching they would be destroyed immediately upon their appearance. Whence animals had need of innate wisdom and this God granted them. So animals are irrational, and no rational force prescribes the wise works of them. A rational being therefore is man alone, because his wisdom is unlimited and has as the object of study the whole world, and develops and advances by its own power and energy.