You claim there are two kinds of living beings: the human race and a second one, the beasts…. But wait, I don’t buy that argument. What if animals are also capable of thought, such as the crane appears to be. And what if the crane decided to give names to things, just as you do. Perhaps they would do the same thing people do and favor cranes over all other creatures and group all other animals, humans included, under one name: beasts.

- Plato, Statesman, 263cd