The Superiority of the Human to the Beast

In Platinus' Enneads, we find the idea that the true nature of the soul resides in a power to identify with one of those two realms. Peter Singer was giving Pico more than his fair share of credit or blame when he named him and the other humanists as pioneers of speciesism. So the humanists were actually being fairly traditional when they encouraged us to turn away from our animal matures.