Plato ranked species by how little reason they exercise

Evidence

Land animals came from men who had no use for philosophy and never considered the nature of the heavens because they had ceased to use the circles in their heads [reason] and followed the leadership of the parts of the soul in the breast [spirit]. Because of these practices their forelimbs and heads were drawn by natural affinity to the earth, and their forelimbs supported on it, while their skulls were elongated into various shapes as a result of the crushing of their circles through lack of use. And the reason why some have four feet and others many was that the stupider they were the more supports god gave them, to tie them more closely to the earth. And the stupidest of the land animals, whose whole bodies lay stretched upon the earth, the god turned into reptiles, giving them no feet, for they had no further need of them. But the most unintelligent and ignorant of all turned into the fourth kind of creature that lives in water…they live in the depths as a punishment for the depths of their stupidity. These are the principles on which living creatures change and have always changed into each other, the transformation depending on the loss or gain of understanding or folly. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 364

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: This anthropocentric grading of the living world — bodies tied to the earth as punishment for lacking logos — supports the claim that humans’ dominion over animals and landscape is written into Western metaphysics from Plato’s Timaeus.
• XREF: connects to: Medieval soul theory ranked beings by reason, excluding animals from moral law — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 768; Plato through German idealism grounded reason in an objective hierarchy of beings. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1457; A single reason-over-nature dualism structures every domain of Plato’s philosophy — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 312 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Plato through German idealism grounded reason in an objective hierarchy of beings. #expands (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1457
• A single reason-over-nature dualism structures every domain of Plato’s philosophy #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 312
• Descartes relocated the Platonic devaluation of nature from virtue into consciousness #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 423
• Plato sacrificed intellectual honesty to promote socially edifying philosophical conclusions #qualifies (0.72) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 403
• Plato erroneously assimilated all forms of knowledge into mathematics #qualifies (0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 718