05 December 2003

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) on Humanity as a Prejudice

'Humanity'.—We do not regard the animals as moral beings. But do you suppose the animals regard us as moral beings?—An animal which could speak said: 'Humanity is a prejudice of which we animals at least are free.'

(Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality, trans. R. J. Hollingdale [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982], bk. 4, aph. 333, p. 329 [first published in 1881 as Die Morgenrote: Gedanken uber die moralischen Vorurteile])