Philosophy and Animal Life

ISBN-13: 9780231145152 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 184 str.

Stanley Cavell

Opis

Philosophy and Animal Life offers a new way of thinking about animal rights, our obligation to animals, and the nature of philosophy itself. Cora Diamond begins with "The Difficulty of Reality and the Difficulty of Philosophy," in which she accuses analytical philosophy of evading, or deflecting, the responsibility of human beings toward nonhuman animals. Diamond then explores the animal question as it is bound up with the more general problem of philosophical skepticism. Focusing specifically on J. M. Coetzee's The Lives of Animals, she considers the failure of language to capture the vulnerability of humans and animals.

Stanley Cavell responds to Diamond's argument with his own close reading of Coetzee's work, connecting the human-animal relation to further themes of morality and philosophy. John McDowell follows with a critique of both Diamond and Cavell, and Ian Hacking explains why Cora Diamond's essay is so deeply perturbing and, paradoxically for a philosopher, he favors poetry over philosophy as a way of overcoming some of her difficulties. Cary Wolfe's introduction situates these arguments within the broader context of contemporary continental philosophy and theory, particularly Jacques Derrida's work on deconstruction and the question of the animal. Philosophy and Animal Life is a crucial collection for those interested in animal rights, ethics, and the development of philosophical inquiry. It also offers a unique exploration of the role of ethics in Coetzee's fiction.

O autorze

Stanley Cavell is the Walter M. Cabot Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University.
Cora Diamond is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Philosophy and professor of law at the University of Virginia
John McDowell is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh
Ian Hacking is University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Toronto and held the Chair of philosophy and history of scientific concepts at the Collège de France.
Cary Wolfe is Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English at Rice University. He is the founding editor of the series Posthumanities at the University of Minnesota Press.