Animal rights do not feature explicitly in ancient thought. Indeed the notion of natural rights in general is not obviously present in the classical world. Plato and Aristotle are typically read as racist and elitist thinkers who barely recognize the humanity of their fellow humans. Surely they would be the last to show up as models of the humane view of other kinds?

Catherine Osborne is Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia.

• Part One: Constructing Divisions


• 1: Introduction: on William Blake, nature and mortality


• 2: On nature and providence: readings in Herodotus, Protagoras and Democritus


• Part Two: Perceiving Continuities


• 3: On the transmigration of souls: reincarnation into animal bodies in Pythagoras, Empedocles and Plato


• 4: On language, concepts and automata: rational and irrational animals in Aristotle and Descartes


• 5: On the disadvantages of being a complex organism: Aristotle and the scala naturae


• Part Three: Being Realistic


• 6: On the vice of sentimentality: Androcles and the Lion and some extraordinary adventures in the Desert Fathers


• 7: On the notion of natural rights: defending the voiceless and oppressed in the Tragedies of Sophocles


• 8: On self-defence and utilitarian calculations: Democritus of Abdera and Hermarchus of Mytilene


• 9: On eating animals: Porphyry's dietary rules for philosophers


• Conclusion