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Animale, Animali

There is no room in biology for a contrast between man and animal. In life sciences there is space, however, for a plurality of animal species, one of which is the human one. The place of humans, alongside monkeys, within the class mammalia and, in particular, within primates, was already recognized by Linnaeus a hundred years before the publication of the Origin of Species. Furthermore, biological species have not essences: they are not natural kinds in the conventional sense of the term. Thus, biology has no room for the concept of humanity, understood as the essence of Homo sapiens, let alone for that of animality, which should capture the essence of a highly heterogeneous plurality of species. Nel 1735 Carlo Linneo pubblica un opuscolo di sole undici pagine in folio, intitolato Systema naturae, sive regna tria naturae systematice proposita per classes, ordines, genera, &species. All'intero regno animale non sono dedicate più di tre pagine, ma queste contengono un prospetto a...