Philosophy reads humanity against animality, arguing that "man" is man because he is separate from beast. Deftly challenging this position, Kelly Oliver proves that, in fact, it is the animal that teaches us to be human. Through their sex, their habits, and our perception of their purpose, animals show us how not to be them.
This kinship plays out in a number of ways. We sacrifice animals to establish human kinship, but without the animal, the bonds of "brotherhood" fall apart. Either kinship with animals is possible or kinship with humans is impossible. Philosophy holds that humans and animals are distinct, but in defending this position, the discipline depends on a discourse that relies on the animal for its very definition of the human. Through these and other examples, Oliver does more than just establish an animal ethics. She transforms ethics by showing how its very origin is dependent upon the animal. Examining for the first time the treatment of the animal in the work of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Agamben, Freud, Lacan, and Kristeva, among others, Animal Lessons argues that the animal bites back, thereby reopening the question of the animal for philosophy.
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Biting the Hand That Feeds You: The Role of Animals in Philosophies
of Man
- Part 1. What’s Wrong with Animal Rights?
- 1. The Right to Remain Silent
- Part 2.
Animal Pedagogy
- 2.
You Are What You Eat: Rousseau’s Cat
- 3. Say the Human Responded: Herder’s Sheep
- Part 3.
Difference “Worthy of Its Name”
- 4. “Hair of the Dog”:
Derrida’s and Rousseau’s Good Taste
- 5. Sexual Difference, Animal Difference:
Derrida’s Sexy Silkworm
- Part 4. It’s Our Fault
- 6. The Beaver’s Struggle with Species-Being:
De Beauvoir and the Praying Mantis
- 7. Answering the Call of Nature:
Lacan Walking the Dog
- Part 5. Estranged Kinship
- 8. The Abyss Between Humans and Animals: Heidegger Puts the Bee in Being
- 9. “Strange Kinship”: Merleau- Ponty’s Sensuous Stickleback
- 10. Stopping the Anthropological Machine: Agamben’s Ticktocking Tick
- Part 6. Psychoanalysis and the Science of Kinship
- 11. Psychoanalysis as Animal By-product:
Freud’s Zoophilia
- 12. Animal Abjects, Maternal Abjects:
Kristeva’s Strays
- Conclusion: Sustainable Ethics
- Notes
- Index
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