Man and beast are often viewed as opposing concepts, as though the nature of personality were divided into the levels of bestial, human, and divine, and as though man, in the middle, strove to raise himself to the level of the gods while spurning that of the beasts.
雖然獸性與人性常被理智地視為對立的觀念，即如把「性」分為三層次，則由下至上依次為獸、人、神（聖）三性了。居於中間的人，努力想把自己提昇到神性層次，另一方面極力排斥獸性。