The philosopher famously defined a human as a featherless biped.
featherless biped
idiomA human being.
Origin
disputed originFrom the dialogue The Statesman by Plato (427–347 B.C.E.): “λέγω δὴ δεῖν τότε εὐθὺς τὸ πεζὸν τῷ δίποδι πρὸς τὸ τετράπουν γένος διανεῖμαι, κατιδόντα δὲ τἀνθρώπινον ἔτι μόνῳ τῷ πτηνῷ συνειληχὸς τὴν δίποδα ἀγέλην πάλιν τῷ ψιλῷ καὶ τῷ πτεροφυεῖ τέμνειν, […] [I say, then, that we ought at that time to have divided walking animals immediately into biped and quadruped, then seeing that the human race falls into the same division with the feathered creatures and no others, we must again divide the biped class into featherless and feathered, […]]”.
In his biology lecture, the professor jokingly referred to his students as featherless bipeds to illustrate an ancient definition.
While the ancient thinker sought to categorize life with precision, his description of man as a mere featherless biped remains a curious relic of early logic.
Last updated April 17, 2026