ISSN: 2641-9130
Authors: López-Domínguez V*
This article analyzes the evolution of the view that German idealism has about animals from both an ontological and legal perspective. The starting point is the overcoming of Cartesian mechanism, thanks to the contributions of Spinoza and, above all, of Leibniz. Still in Kant, the radical distinction between intelligence and sensitivity, the clash between moral reason and inclinations, prevent granting rights to animals. For him, intelligence broke with nature, provoking in man a feeling of superiority over other living beings, which he put at his service. However, as philosophy softens this gap between spirit and nature, animals begin to acquire a greater presence, in a process that includes Herder and Schelling Philosophies of Nature as well as Fichte´s theory of the body. Finally, Krause definitively lays the foundations for ecology and animal law.
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