On instinct in animals
121:14
Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Book Description: The final volume of Seneca's moral letters. Common Stoic themes emerge again and again: the unreliability of fortune, the ability to form Stoic resolve, and the importance of virtue.
14. “You maintain, do you,” says the objector, “that every living thing is at the start adapted to its constitution, but that man’s constitution is a reasoning one, and hence man is adapted to himself not merely as a living, but as a reasoning, being?
For man is dear to himself in respect of that wherein he is a man.
How, then, can a child, being not yet gifted with reason, adapt himself to a reasoning constitution?”
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On instinct in animals
Location: Chapter 121, Section 14
Content:
14. “You maintain, do you,” says the objector, “that every living thing is at the start adapted to its constitution, but that man’s constitution is a reasoning one, and hence man is adapted to himself not merely as a living, but as a reasoning, being?
For man is dear to himself in respect of that wherein he is a man.
How, then, can a child, being not yet gifted with reason, adapt himself to a reasoning constitution?”