Immanuel Kant on Animals
← Back to Immanuel Kant Profile
“Thus our duties to animals are indirectly duties to humanity.”
“A person who already displays ... cruelty to animals is also no less hardened towards men. We can already know the human heart, even in regard to animals.”
“The more we devote ourselves to observing animals and their behaviour, the more we love them, on seeing how gready they care for their young; in such a context, we cannot even contemplate cruelty to a wolf. Leibnitz put the grub he had been observing back on the tree with its leaf, lest he should be guilty of doing any harm to it. It upsets a man to destroy such a creature for no reason, and this tenderness is subsequendy transferred to man.”