The Interrelatedness of All Animals, Including Humans

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 09 Jun 2013 â€“ 0:00 PDT

email to a friend Â printer friendly Â opinions Â

!â€“ rate article

Patient / Public:

5 (1 votes)

Healthcare Prof:

We donâ€™t just share our lives with animals; we are animals â€“ a reality that we often choose to forget in modern Western culture. Research published in the June special issue of SAGE journal, Social Science Information (SSI), delves deeper into our relationship with other creatures, critically examining our own animal nature, and looking at how animals profoundly influence our culture â€“ perhaps more so than we had initially thought.

We have often been told in Western thought that the human species is one that is highly developed, above that of the animal kingdom, a division that is clear cut and one that clearly sets the human species apart. Yet Dominique Lestel, a highly influential researcher studying animality (our animal nature), opposes the separation of human and animal life. Lestel ask us to reframe the question of animality, asking us to view humanization as an ongoing performative practice, rather than an historical threshold that was crossed long ago.

Looking at the relationship between animal and human, Lestel argues that species loss has both an ecological and symbolic consequence on our culture, as every species contributes to our very being, our meaning. He warns that â€œeach species that disappears is a part of our imagination that we amputate perhaps irreversiblyâ€.

According to Lestel, the question is â€œnot that of knowing how I share my life with others, but how others shape me and how I shape others,â€ The work focuses on the interrelatedness of all animals (humans included), where more usually we tend to highlight the boundaries between us.

In addition to humansâ€™ place in the animal kingdom at a scientific level, Lestel also highlights our essential, existential animality in his opening comments with fellow editor, Hollis Taylor. â€œA key question now is to know how the human of the 21st century can reactivate his animality and animalize himself anew when all Western thought since the Greeks tells him that he is human precisely because of this rupture with animality,â€ Lestel suggests, building on his critique of the very philosophical foundations of the ethological tradition. â€œTo be human does not mean to have fled animality, but on the contrary to live within it and to let it live within usâ€¦we are animals and animals are us.â€

Additional
References
Citations

Lestelâ€™s work is showcased in this special SSI issue along with a series of important articles on animal cognitive science by Vinciane Despret, Roberto Marchesini and Giorgio Celli. Not previously available in English, these works are outlined and explained by Jeffrey Bussolini. Both synthesizers and provocateurs, these intellectuals all concern themselves with the status of humanâ€“animal relations, penning critical interpretations of the ethological (animal behaviour studies) tradition. Drawing heavily on the natural sciences, these authors are still critical of animalsâ€™ empirical consideration in scientific literature. Tuned in to the relevant currents in the humanities, especially philosophy, this group is yet wary of humanistic and theological discourses that may hide important questions about animality.

The seven articles in SSI cover a â€œveritable menagerieâ€ of animal experience, including GalÃ¡pagos tortoises, spotted hyenas, elephants, songbirds, great apes, humans, goats, fish and hermit crabs join lions, bears, tigers, wolves, monkeys and other â€˜exoticâ€™ animals of the black market. Empirical and theoretical forays into human experience alongside these animals span five continents.

SAGE Publications

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

Add Your Opinion On This Article

â€˜The Interrelatedness Of All Animals, Including Humansâ€™

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let
you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care
professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.