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Animal Rights History Timeline » [BCE-CE] Antiquity » Plotinus

Plotinus

Enneads, On Providence

On Providence

[3rd c.] Plotinus, "On Providence," in The Six Enneads, translated by Stephen Mackenna and B. S. Page (London, 1717-1930; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

Animals and plants have their share in Reason, Soul and Life. (98)

Now, no one of any intelligence complains of these others, man's inferiors, which serve to the adornment of the world; it would be feeble indeed to complain of animals biting man, as if we were to pass our days asleep. No: the animal, too, exists of necessity, and is serviceable in many ways, some obvious and many progressively discovered—so that not one lives without profit to itself and even to humanity. It is ridiculous, also, to complain that many of them are dangerous—there are dangerous men abroad as well—and if they distrust us, and in their distrust attack, is that anything to wonder at? (201)