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Thinking Through Animals: Identity, Difference, Indistinction

Autor Matthew Calarco
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 23 iun 2015
The rapidly expanding field of critical animal studies now offers a myriad of theoretical and philosophical positions from which to choose. This timely book provides an overview and analysis of the most influential of these trends. Approachable and concise, it is intended for readers sympathetic to the project of changing our ways of thinking about and interacting with animals yet relatively new to the variety of philosophical ideas and figures in the discipline. It uses three rubrics—identity, difference, and indistinction—to differentiate three major paths of thought about animals. The identity approach aims to establish continuity among human beings and animals so as to grant animals equal access to the ethical and political community. The difference framework views the animal world as containing its own richly complex and differentiated modes of existence in order to allow for a more expansive ethical and political worldview. The indistinction approach argues that we should abandon the notion that humans are unique in order to explore new ways of conceiving human-animal relations. Each approach is interrogated for its relative strengths and weaknesses, with specific emphasis placed on the kinds of transformational potential it contains.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780804794046
ISBN-10: 0804794049
Pagini: 88
Dimensiuni: 127 x 203 x 8 mm
Greutate: 0.16 kg
Editura: Stanford University Press
Colecția Stanford Briefs

Recenzii

"Concise, incisive, and written with exemplary clarity, this book provides all of the background necessary to understand the philosophical and political stakes of current debates around the status of animals in relation to humans. It will appeal to non-specialists and specialists alike."—Brian Massumi, University of Montréal

"A major work of synthesis that makes sense of the already almost unsurveyable field of critical animal studies. Practical and pragmatic, yet carrying a strong theoretical punch, it will be a point of reference for future discussions in the field."—Eduardo Mendieta, SUNY Stony Brook

"Surveying the disparate and sometimes rocky terrain of animal studies from Aristotle through Haraway with grace and insight, this little book synthesizes an abundance of material, movements, and positions in a breathtaking, not to mention extremely helpful, manner."—Kelly Oliver, Vanderbilt University

Notă biografică

Matthew Calarco is Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton.

Cuprins

Contents and Abstracts
1Identity
chapter abstract

Chapter 1 analyzes the key notions that constitute the foundation for many of the modern movements for animal liberation and animal rights. This approach is referred to as the identity approach, inasmuch as it founds its ethical and political framework on human-animal identity. While identity theorists do not maintain that human beings and animals are identical in every respect, they do argue that our shared evolutionary history has given rise to fundamental similarities in terms of key ethically relevant traits. If we accept the basic ethical principle of treating likes alike, then this would imply, identity theorists argue, that we need to rethink our attitudes toward and interactions with animals that are similar to human beings in ethically relevant ways. The chapter concludes with an examination of the central ethical and political upshots of this framework as well as some of its critical limitations.

2Difference
chapter abstract

Chapter 2 engages with the difference approach to animal studies found in the writings of philosopher Jacques Derrida and related theorists. Difference theorists in general tend to have a critical relation to standard conceptions of human nature and ethics, and seek to develop in their place a more relational conception of human beings based on the radical singularity, or radical difference, of individuals. Pro-animal theorists in this tradition have noted that these critical reworkings of our basics ideas about human nature and ethics also call into question traditional ideas about the human/animal distinction and ethical relations with animals. They argue that a thought of difference, when pursued in view of its implications for animals, can generate an expansive notion of ethics that acknowledges the importance of human-animal relations and that respects the singularity of animals.

3Indistinction
chapter abstract

Chapter 3 examines the indistinction approach, which aims to think about human-animal relations in a manner that de-emphasizes the importance of human uniqueness and the human/animal distinction. Indistinction theorists and activists explore some of the surprising ways in which human beings find themselves to be like animals, while also examining the varied ways in which animals demonstrate their own forms of agency, creativity, and potential. The political task for indistinction theorists consists primarily in trying to shrink the influence of the institutional and economic practices that limit animal potentiality and to create other ways of life that allow for both human beings and animals to flourish.


Descriere

This clear and concise book provides a critical analysis of three central philosophical frameworks in the field of critical animal studies that is intended for specialists and non-specialists alike.