Gurevich, P. S. Human as an Animal

Abstract: What is the difference between human and animal: This is an eternal question for both psychologists and philosophers. Representatives of sociobiology such as M. Midgley, for instance, assume that human does not only resemble an animal. He is, in fact, an animal. Midgley criticizes Freud for not discussing that topic in his researches. However, the founder of classical psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud made many discoveries while viewing human as an animal. Other branches of psychoanalysis, especially structural psychoanalysis, on the contrary, searched for the signs of human nature in human sociality and ability to speak and use symbols. The author of the present article makes an attempt to view this problem from the point of view of morals. In this case, the research methods are closely connected with the methods of philosophical understanding of human. General methodological base of the research includes dialectics enriched with modern achievements in the sphere of system approach and synergetic vision of the world. The author shows that discussion of this topic raises may other moral issues. The novelty of the research is in the author’s attempt to find the difference between an animal and human not only from the point of view of their life style but also in moral attitude to the reality. Comparing egoism and altruism, the author shows that animals cannot be viewed as ‘moral’ subjects. Pavel Gurevich also specifies the difference between philosophical and biological interpretations of human nature.

Keywords: