Animal Philosophy

Peter Atterton teaches in the Deaprtment of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. Matthew Calarco is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sweet Briar College.

"In Animal Philosophy: Ethics and Identity, editors Peter Atterton and Matthew Calarco collect some of the more germane writings on animals from a range of prominent Continental philosophers...The collection introduces novel approaches to lingering philosophical questions about animals' ontological and ethical status, but it also included hermeneutic approaches to our deployment of animal symbols, phenomenological reflections on human encounters and relationships with animals, and deconstructive linguistic analyses of designations such as "animal." Animal Philosophy fills a gap in literature, for while most of the works excerpted here have been available in translation for some time, no entire volume had been dedicated explicitly to how these writers address these questions...The commentary contains helpful measure of exegesis and critique. The essays offered by the editors are exceptionally valuable...For readers interested in Continental philosophy, "the animal question," or both, this volume is a welcome arrival." --Janus Head, Summer 2005

• Preface; Editors' Introduction: The Animal Question in Continental Philosophy; 1. Friedrich Nietzsche; O My Animals; Nietzsche and Animals; 2. Martin Heidegger; The Animal is Poor on World; Heidegger's Zoontology; 3. George Bataille; Animality; Bataille and the Poetic Fallacy of Animality; 4. Emmanuel Levinas; The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights; Ethical Cynicism; 5. Michel Foucault; Animality and Insanity; Madness and Animality in Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization; 6. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari; Becoming Animal; Animal Becomings; 7. Jacques Derrida; The Animal That Therefore I Am; Thinking with Cats; 8. Luc Ferry; Neither Man nor Stone; Manly Values: Luc Ferry's Ethical Philosophy; 9. Helene Cixous; Birds, Women and Writing; The Writing of Birds, in My Language; 10. Luce lrigaray; Animal Compassion; With commentaries by: Peter Atterton - University of California, San Diego, USA; Matthew Calarco - Sweet Briar College, USA; Verena Conley - Miami University, Ohio and Visisting Professor at Harvard, USA; Alphonso Lingis - Penn State, USA; Jill Marsden - Bolton Institute; Clare Palmer - Lancaster University; Stephen David Ross - Binghampton University, USA; James Urpeth - University of Greenwich; David Wood - Vanderbilt University, USA