L’article présente et analyse deux représentations de l’agent économique : celle de l’ homo œconomicus chez John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) puis celle de l’ animal laborans, expression que l’on trouve chez Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). Chacun des deux auteurs se situe en opposition à une conception de Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) qui identifie l’être humain à un agent économique, être rationnel, apte au calcul et au raisonnement logique pour son cas personnel mais qui n’est cependant pas un être raisonnable, c’est-à-dire (...) susceptible de vivre en harmonie avec les autres sans le couperet d’une législation qui borne sa liberté. Mill, en désaccord avec la conception du bonheur de Bentham, attribue à l’être économique des aspirations plus élevées, lesquelles seraient à même de se réaliser dans le futur, pourvu qu’une égalité politique authentique, notamment entre hommes et femmes, soit enfin établie. Arendt, née un siècle plus tard, s’inquiète, pour sa part, de la dégradation de l’image que l’être humain a de lui-même en s’identifiant à un animal laborans. Archétype de l’individu dont toutes les occupations se pensent sur le modèle d’une activité nécessaire à sa satisfaction personnelle, enfermé dans le privé de son corps, l’ animal laborans qui n’éprouve que des sensations, de la peine ou du plaisir, s’apparente tout à fait aux êtres insuffisants, non raisonnables, que Bentham avait en tête pour concevoir la législation comme un moyen de les faire vivre ensemble. Si l’on suit Arendt, il n’est pas exclu que la conception benthamienne de l’homme, contre laquelle Mill s’était élevé, puisse devenir la réalité de demain, autrement dit que le règne de l’ animal laborans, être esseulé, ayant perdu jusqu’au besoin de guider lui-même sa propre conduite à l’égard des autres puisse finir par s’imposer. (shrink)

Pretendo examinar nesse texto uma questão central à reflexão arendtiana sobre a modernidade política: a vitória do animal laborans. Para tanto, realizarei uma análise das variações semânticas do uso arendtiano do termo, cuja compreensão é central à articulação operada por ela entre a condição humana, o surgimento da sociedade e a prevalência de uma mentalidade atrelada à vida via trabalho e consumo. Concluímos que há ao menos três sentidos principais do emprego da expressão animal laborans na (...) obra de Hannah Arendt: como dimensão fundamental da existência condicionada pela vida; como produto da sociedade atomizada; e como mentalidade e “modo de vida” extraídos das condições do mero viver. Pensamos que tal empresa é um passo fundamental à compreensão da relação entre economia e política na era moderna. (shrink)

Partiendo de las categorías de ‘autoafirmación’ y ‘animal laborans’ propuestas por Blumenberg y Arendt, se dirime si el transhumanismo tiene alguna relación con el humanismo. Su contextualización permite encuadrar este movimiento dentro de la lógica del capitalismo de consumo, y definirlo como un paso más hacia la mercantilización de las distintas esferas de la vida. Se concluye que el transhumanismo es efectivamente un más allá del humanismo, si atendemos a las condiciones culturales y existenciales heredadas del proyecto emancipatorio (...) moderno y sus consecuencias en el desarrollo e innovación tecnológicos. (shrink)

Cet article révèle qu’au cœur du débat effervescent sur le revenu de base inconditionnel (RBI), où s’affirment pourtant parmi les plus fortes utopies et revendications en matière de liberté, s’observe, tant du côté des opposants que des partisans de l’idée, « le triomphe de l’ animal laborans » annoncé par Hannah Arendt (1983). Soulignant l’incohérence des plaidoyers pro-RBI qui résulte de leur recours à l’ animal laborans, de même que les dangers que fait encourir ce présupposé (...) anthropologique à la viabilité des sociétés démocratiques, nous concluons en montrant en quoi la défense du RBI peut, à certaines conditions, constituer une opportunité exceptionnelle pour détrôner l’ animal laborans de la doxa contemporaine et faire advenir des postulats alternatifs salvateurs. (shrink)

O presente texto propõe-se a refletir, no rastro de Arendt, sobre o declínio da política na modernidade diante de sua redução à administração da vida e das necessidades vitais. Para tanto, discutiremos a “moderna alienação do mundo” fomentada pela ascensão do trabalho e da vida, e refletiremos sobre a redução da política à administração da vida diante do advento do social e da vitória do animal laborans. Pressupõe-se que, examinarmos tais categorias nos permite observar o ocaso da política (...) na era moderna e a sua transformação em biopolítica, e, ademais, como esta categoria segue na contramão da noção política da autora. Para a metodologia, realizamos uma exegese filosófica das obras referencias, especialmente a obra A Condição Humana (1958), de Hannah Arendt. (shrink)

This article responds to the critique of productivist essentialism, which is the view that the human is the productive animal, made against Marx. The author argues against this view and holds that Marx introduces a dialectical account of human essence with the notion of species being in the 1844 Manuscripts, which he then develops in The German Idology. This account of essence includes a static and dynamic moment, and in capitalism, the dialectic of essence has resulted in the appearance (...) of the human as the productive animal. Finally, the author argues that Marx’s critique of production and dialectical account of human essence allow us to better think the possibilities for a post-work future. (shrink)

Este trabalho tem como objetivo, investigar como se deu o surgimento do que Hannah Arendt denominou esfera do social, assim como a formação do homem de massa após a vitória do animal laborans na era moderna. Para tanto recorreremos Grécia antiga com o fito de conceituar o que esta autora denominou de público e privado, em seguida mostraremos como está configurado tais domínios na era moderna e suas influências na formação do que se denomina esfera do social na (...) filosofia política arendtiana. Resumé Cette étude a pour objectif analyser l’origine de ce que Hannah Arendt appelait la sphère social, ainsi que la formation de l'homme de masse après la victoire de l’ animal laborans dans l'ère moderne. De ce fait, nous recourrerons à la Grèce antique dans le but de conceptualiser ce qui s’appelais autrefois public et privé, puis nous montrerons comment sont configurés tels domaines dans l'époque moderne et leurs influences sur la formation de ce qu'on appelle la sphère social dans la philosophie politique de Hannah Arendt. Mots-clé : sphère social, homme de masse, animal laborans , sphère public, sphère privé. (shrink)

This article examines why and how workers adhere and contribute to the perpetuation of the freedom fantasy induced by neoliberal ideology. We turn to Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the human condition, which offers invaluable insights into the mechanisms that foster the erosion of human freedom in the workplace. Embracing an Arendtian lens, we demonstrate that individuals become entrapped in a libertarian fantasy—a condition enacted by the replacement of the freedom to act by the freedom to perform. The latter embodies the (...) survivalist modus operandi of animal laborans who renounces singularity, by focusing on the function of supervised labor, who renounces solidarity, by focusing on individualist and competitive labor, and who is deprived of spontaneity, by focusing on the measured productivity of labor. Therefore, we propose a new corporate governance perspective based on the rehabilitation of political action in organizations as the best way to preserve human capacity for singularity, solidarity, and spontaneity. (shrink)

Dieser Aufsatz befasst sich hauptsächlich mit drei Werken: The Human Condition der Philosophin Hannah Arendt, The Road To Serfdom des Ökonomen Friedrich A. Hayek und dem Essay “Tradition without Convention” aus dem Sammelband Freedom and the Arts des Musikwissenschaftlers Charles Rosen. Die Grundlage des vorliegenden Essays bildet The Human Condition, Die conditio humana bildet die Grundlage des Essays, in dem Arendts historisch angelegte Erzählung den öffentlichen und privaten Bereich, wie er in der griechischen Antike existierte und definiert wurde, bis zu (...) seinen verschiedenen Verzerrungen in der Moderne nachzeichnet. Die Veränderung wird in erster Linie als Ergebnis der schwankenden Verhältnisse der Conditio humana selbst verstanden, die Arendt ausführlich als Arbeit (animal laborans), Herstellen (homo faber) und Handeln (vita activa) kategorisiert. In diesem Zusammenhang untersuchen wir zwei Hauptgedanken: die Anreize zur Entscheidungsfindung und die Zuständigkeitsbereiche;und moderne Gebiete für Exzellenz, Betrachtung und Gleichberechtigung, die in der heutigen Zeit gedeihen können. Es geht um eine zweiteilige Diskussion: der Entscheidungsfähigkeit in einem erodierten privaten Bereich und den Preis für den höchsten Aspekt der menschlichen Existenz, wenn die Verheißung des öffentlichen Bereichs und seine Zugangsvoraussetzungen nicht mehr im Rahmen der egalitären Standards der Moderne gewährt werden. F. A. Hayeks überzeugende Auseinandersetzung mit Zentralplanung, die Unmöglichkeit ihrer Kompetenz sowie der moralische Verfall, der eintritt, wenn Entscheidungen und Verantwortlichkeiten ausgelagert werden, bieten einen nützlichen und konstruktiven Rahmen für die Beobachtung von sowie dem Schutz vor den Fallen eines eingenommenen privaten Bereichs. Rosen liefert mit seiner verblüffenden Analyse von Konventionen in der klassischen Musik des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts ein aufschlussreiches Paradigma, um damit nicht nur einen modernen öffentlichen Raum zu verorten, sondern auch Konventionen, Muster und Praktiken zu erkennen, die zu seiner Existenz und Langlebigkeit beitragen. (shrink)

resumo: A crítica de Hannah Arendt a Karl Marx perpassa a questão da técnica. Arendt sugerira que Marx contribuíra para a elevação do animal laborans à condição humana moderna quando indicou que a emancipação humana estaria na vitória dos trabalhadores. Empreenderemos uma refutação à crítica de Arendt, indicando que Marx recusa a tradicional cisão entre vida ativa e vida contemplativa, para se opor à alienação do homem no labor, e não o contrário. Indicaremos, assim, que Marx estava mais (...) próximo de Arendt do que ela imaginava, dado ter criticado justamente a redução do homem a uma atividade que acaba por dar a todas as demais atividades uma forma meramente utilitária. Para ambos é preciso evitar empreender uma inversão hierárquica do pensar sobre o agir. abstract: Hannah Arendt’s critique to Karl Marx permeates the question of technique. Arendt suggested that Marx had contributed to elevate the animal laborans to the modern human condition when he indicated that human emancipation would lie in the workers’ victory. This text affords a rebuttal to this criticism of Arendt, indicating that Marx refuses the traditional split between vita activa and vita contemplativa in order to oppose the alienation of man to labor. We will indicate that Marx was closer to Arendt than she imagined, since he rightly criticized the reduction of man to an activity that ends up giving to all other activities a purely utilitarian form. To both of them it is necessary to avoid undertaking a hierarchical reversal of thinking over acting. (shrink)

Labor, producción y acción son las tres actividades que forman la vita activa para Hannah Arendt. En torno a acción construyó su pensamiento político y, por eso, es la más atendida por la literatura. Labor y producción han quedado relegadas a un segundo plano, obviando todo aquello que ambas retienen e iluminan. El artículo muestra las dificultades de una distinción que resulta un tanto resbaladiza, sobre todo cuando labor y producción se entienden como conceptos, cristalizaciones de los fenómenos que Arendt (...) pretendía capturar. Propone, en cambio, que labor y producción cobran su más hondo significado cuando se comprenden como experiencias, es decir, como las mentalidades y modos de vida del animal laborans y el homo faber¸ siempre dentro del esfuerzo arendtiano de comprensión de la Modernidad y el totalitarismo. (shrink)

El objetivo de esta presentación es establecer una relación entre el ciclo de la labor, conceptualizado por Arendt en La condición humana, y el campo de concentración. Se parte de la clara alusión de Arendt, en donde argumenta que lo que se busca en el campo de concentración, es la construcción de un animal que sólo tenga la “libertad” de “reproducir su especie”. Dichas características están insertas en el animal laborans que también pareciera ser la cifra del (...) homo sacer de Giorgio Agamben. Esa institución del derecho romano arcaico, según los desarrollos de Agamben, permite entender al interno del campo de concentración. El animal laborans se puede encontrar en las prácticas que se desarrollan en el campo. La labor y el consumo forman parte fundamental de una estrategia de supervivencia y modulan, en forma definitiva, la diferencia entre el futuro sobreviviente y el musulmán. Vida y muerte son moduladas por lalabor y por el consumo. El ciclo de la labor crea sujetos, crea posibilidades. Esas estrategias, a través de la labor y del consumo, permiten visualizar que la supervivencia puede ser leída con la grilla de inteligibilidad del homo oeconomicus, es decir, un sujeto de interés empresario de sí mismo, que se gobierna a sí mismo como una posesión, y que, por ende, puede ser entendido como un sujeto gobernable. El sobreviviente hace un trabajo sobre sí mismo para poder sobrevivir, educarse para subsisitir y no caer en la selección. El homo oeconomicus del neoliberalismo puede permitirnos entender la vida dentro del campo y, por ende, puede ser la cifra del homo sacer a través de su condición del animal laborans. (shrink)

Erigir o aumento da riqueza e da abundância como um objetivo primordial para a vita activa já se desenhava como premissa axiomática da economia política clássica, além do sonho idealizado dos pobres e despossuídos. Havia, no entanto, certa esperança utópica de que, ao viver em uma sociedade com maior abastança, as pessoas cidadãs buscariam mais plenamente o desenvolvimento de apropriada abstenção consciente do trabalho e do consumo em seu tempo livre, ou seja: que isento da dor e do esforço de (...) trabalhar e consumir, o animal laborans tornar-se-ia produtivo para si próprio, nutrindo-se de atividades “superiores”. No entanto, de quanto mais horas vagas dispõe o laborans, maiores são seus apetites de consumo e, sobretudo, uma sociedade abundante expõe devidamente a falácia do raciocínio anterior, uma vez que tudo pode ser reificado e comercializado. Esse artigo pretende analisar o fenômeno da sociedade de consumo contemporânea como engrenagem do ciclo vital, descrevendo de que modo, presas em seus próprios processos de trabalho e consumo, as pessoas cidadãs desfrutam apenas de uma política instrumental. Essa alienação promove a vitória do animal laborans sobre o zoon politikon. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie Jahrgang: 2 Heft: 2 Seiten: 371-400.

This article, drawing on selected feminist magazines of the 1980s, particularly Feminist Arts News (FAN) and GEN, offers a textual ‘braiding’ of narratives to re-present a history of Black British feminism. I attempt to chart a history of Black British feminist inheritance while proposing the politics of (other)mothering as a politics of potential, pluralistic and democratic community building, where Black thought and everyday living carry a primary and participant role. The personal—mothering our children—is the political, affording a nurturing of alterity (...) through a politics of care that is fundamentally antiracist and antisexist. I attempt to show how Black feminist thought can significantly contribute to democracy in the present and how Black British history and thought, as fundamentally antiracist and anticolonial, can generate a reinvention much needed in the present of a shared British history. I argue for feminist intervention premised upon a politics of care, addressing through activist mothering the urgency of Black absence from prestigious institutions. Such debilitating absence in Britain inhibits the development of scholarship, distorts feminist history and seriously concerns potential Black feminists. From diverse texts, I develop a genealogical narrative supplemented through memory work. This ‘gathering and re-using’ privileges Black women's theorising as a crucial component of the methodological metissage, which includes auto-theorising to develop ideas of resemblance in relation to Black British feminism and feminist kinship. The resultant ‘braiding’, I suggest after Lionnet, questions the absence of intersubjective spaces for reflection on Black British feminist praxis, indicating a direction for British feminists of all complexions. Attentive to the 1980s as historical context while invoking the maternal, I consider what is required to engage generationally, counterwrite the academy and pursue a dynamic process of transformation within a transnational feminism that challenges Black British absence from academic knowledge production, while nurturing its presence. (shrink)

Going beyond the creolisation theories of Brathwaite and Glissant, I attempt to develop ideas concerning the gendering of creolisation, and a historicising of affects within it. Addressing affects as ‘physiological things’ contextualised in the history of the Caribbean slave plantation, I seek, importantly, to delineate a trajectory and development of a specific Creole history in relation to affects. Brathwaite's proposition that ‘the most significant (and lasting) inter-cultural creolisation took place’ within the ‘intimate’ space of ‘sexual relations’ is key to my (...) argument. In the light of this, I consider how Creole cultural knowledge about affect—as the primary motivational system inclusive of fear, anger, outrage and so on — might be identified, and what constitutes such Creole knowledge within which affect might be embedded. How might Glissant's relationality and Creole literary texts add to this knowledge? I focus primarily on three texts: Clarke's The Polished Hoe, Collins’ The Colour of Forgetting and Morejón's ‘Amo a mi amo’/‘l Love My Master’. Each text on which I draw is selected for its intersectional representation of gender relations, ‘knowledge about sexual difference’ and its representation of Creole subjectivities within the context problematised here as the ‘demonic ground’. Moreover, as auto-theorising texts, they represent both narrative and meta-narrative of a creolising of affects in and against the economy of the slave plantation. Each represents also a stage or aspect of the development of subjectivities and an affective community that inform this intervention concerned with theorising against consolidated, universalising and Eurocentric conceptualisations of affect. In the process, I attempt to offer a differentiated cartography and literary archaeology of affect. (shrink)

The ethical foundations of the “animal liberation” movement are compared with those of Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic,” which is taken as the paradigm for environmental ethics in general. Notwithstanding certain superficial similarities, more profound practical and theoretical differences are exposed. While only sentient animals are moraIly considerable according to the humane ethic, the land ethic includes within its purview plants as weIl as animals and even soils and waters. Nor does the land ethic prohibit the hunting, killing, and eating (...) ofcertain animal species, in sharp contrast to the humane ethic. The humane ethic rests upon Benthamic foundations: pain is taken to be the ultimate evil and it is reductive or atomistic in its moral focus. The land ethic, on the other hand, is holistic in the sense that theintegrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community is its summum bonum. A classical antecedent of some of the formal characteristics of the land ethic is found in Plato’s moral philosophy. Special consideration is given to the differing moral status of domestic and wild animals in the humane and land ethics and to the question of moral vegetarianism. (shrink)

University of Chicago Press, 2001 Review by Adriano Palma, Ph.D. on Aug 1st 2001 Volume: 5, Number: 31.

In this article, we ask why is it that sociology has been slow to take up the animal challenge, and ask what would happen if it did. We argue that sociology’s fraught relationship with biology, its assumptions about human exceptionalism and its emergence in the context of industrialization and urbanization are key to understanding its lack of attention to animals and contribute to a limited conceptualization of society. This can be remedied by viewing non-human animals as involuntarily embedded in (...) social relationships, a move which involves a redefinition of the social and of what it means to be human; a revision of notions of agency, subjectivity and reflexivity; and a rejection of the speciesism and anthropocentrism on which sociology is based. Finally, the article contends that a full understanding of society is not possible if we continue to direct the sociology gaze only at humans. (shrink)

The explanation of animal communication by means of concepts like information, meaning and reference is one of the central foundational issues in animal behaviour studies. This book explores these issues, revolving around questions such as: • What is the nature of information? • What theoretical roles does information play in animal communication studies? • Is it justified to employ these concepts in order to explain animal communication? • What is the relation between animal signals and (...) human language? The book approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including ethology, animal cognition, theoretical biology and evolutionary biology, as well as philosophy of biology and mind. A comprehensive introduction familiarises non-specialists with the field and leads on to chapters ranging from philosophical and theoretical analyses to case studies involving primates, birds and insects. The resulting survey of new and established concepts and methodologies will guide future empirical and theoretical research. (shrink)

Alasdair Cochrane introduces an entirely new theory of animal rights grounded in their interests as sentient beings. He then applies this theory to different and underexplored policy areas, such as genetic engineering, pet-keeping, indigenous hunting, and religious slaughter. In contrast to other proponents of animal rights, Cochrane claims that because most sentient animals are not autonomous agents, they have no intrinsic interest in liberty. As such, he argues that our obligations to animals lie in ending practices that cause (...) their suffering and death and do not require the liberation of animals. Cochrane's "interest-based rights approach" weighs the interests of animals to determine which is sufficient to impose strict duties on humans. In so doing, Cochrane acknowledges that sentient animals have a clear and discernable right not to be made to suffer and not to be killed, but he argues that they do not have a prima facie right to liberty. Because most animals possess no interest in leading freely chosen lives, humans have no moral obligation to liberate them. Moving beyond theory to the practical aspects of applied ethics, this pragmatic volume provides much-needed perspective on the realities and responsibilities of the human-animal relationship. (shrink)

On a rainy day in May 1988, a lowland gorilla named Willie B. stepped outdoors for the first time in twenty-seven years, into a new landscape immersion exhibit. Born in Africa, Willie B. had been captured by an animal collector and sold to a zoo. During the decades he spent in a cage, zoos stopped collecting animals from the wild and Americans changed the ways they wished to view animals in the zoo. Zoos developed new displays to simulate landscapes (...) like the Amazon River basin and African forests. Exhibits similar to animals' natural habitats began to replace old-fashioned animal houses. But such displays are only the most recent effort of zoos to present their audiences with an authentic experience of nature. Since the first zoological park opened in the United States in Philadelphia in 1874, zoos have promised their visitors a journey into the natural world. And for more than a century they have been popular places for education and recreation: every year more than 130 million Americans go to zoos to look at the animals and enjoy a day outdoors. The first book-length history of American zoos, Animal Attractions examines the meaning of nature in the city by looking at the ways zoos have assembled and displayed their animal collections. Situated literally and culturally in the American middle landscape, zoos are concrete expressions of longstanding tensions between wildness and civilization, science and popular culture, education and entertainment. In their efforts to promote nature appreciation, they reveal much about how our culture envisions the natural world and the human place in it and how these ideas have changed. (shrink)

Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852–1936) is widely regarded as the father of modern comparative psychology. Yet, Morgan initially had significant doubts about whether a genuine science of comparative psychology was even possible, only later becoming more optimistic about our ability to make reliable inferences about the mental capacities of non-human animals. There has been a fair amount of disagreement amongst scholars of Morgan’s work about the nature, timing, and causes of this shift in Morgan’s thinking. We argue that Morgan underwent two (...) quite different shifts of attitude towards the proper practice of comparative psychology. The first was a qualified acceptance of the Romanesian approach to comparative psychology that he had initially criticized. The second was a shift away from Romanes’ reliance on systematizing anecdotal evidence of animal intelligence towards an experimental approach, focused on studying the development of behaviour. We emphasize the role of Morgan’s evolving epistemological views in bringing about the first shift – in particular, his philosophy of science. We emphasize the role of an intriguing but overlooked figure in the history of comparative psychology in explaining the second shift, T. Mann Jones, whose correspondence with Morgan provided an important catalyst for Morgan’s experimental turn, particularly the special focus on development. We also shed light on the intended function of Morgan’s Canon, the methodological principle for which Morgan is now mostly known. The Canon can only be properly understood by seeing it in the context of Morgan’s own unique experimental vision for comparative psychology. (shrink)

Most approaches to animal ethics ground the moral standing of nonhumans in some appeal to their capacities for intelligent autonomy or mental sentience. _Corporal Compassion _emphasizes the phenomenal and somatic commonality of living beings; a philosophy of body that seeks to displace any notion of anthropomorphic empathy in viewing the moral experiences of nonhuman living beings. Ralph R. Acampora employs phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism and deconstruction to connect and contest analytic treatments of animal rights and liberation theory. In doing (...) so, he focuses on issues of being and value, and posits a felt nexus of bodily being, termed symphysis, to devise an interspecies ethos. Acampora uses this broad-based bioethic to engage in dialogue with other strains of environmental ethics and ecophilosophy. _Corporal Compassion_ examines the practical applications of the somatic ethos in contexts such as laboratory experimentation and zoological exhibition, and challenges practitioners to go beyond recent reforms and look to a future beyond exploitation or total noninterference--a posthumanist culture that advocates caring in a participatory approach. (shrink)

Darwin's theory of evolution brought to an end the static view of nature. It was no longer possible to think of species as immortal, with secure places in nature. Fluctuation of population could no longer be thought of as occurring within definite limits which had been set at the time of creation. Nor was it any longer possible to generalize from the differential reproductive potentials, or from a few cases of mutualism between species, that everything in nature was “fitted to (...) produce general ends, and reciprocal uses.” 134 The appeal to “design” could no longer be substituted for answers to questions concerning animal demography. Instead, the dynamics of a population had to be viewed as the outcome of species' struggle against animate and inanimate factors in the environment. Both the members of a species and the environmental factors tend to vary randomly, and therefore neither evolution nor population dynamics could be fully understood alone. For this reason Darwin's linking of the two subjects was inevitable and not merely an historical accident. Since Darwin had shown that no automatic equilibrium existed, he demonstrated the importance of closer study of the causes of population dynamics and extinction. He also indicated that an understanding of population depends upon the development of a broad knowledge in ecology.Viewed from another direction, Darwin's work ended the early modern era of population studies by clarifying three interrelated problems which were important for understanding population: extinction, distribution, and the nature of species. The components of his answer had been discussed in the eighteenth century, but there had not existed enough evidence for the completion of the revolution in thought which had then begun. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Playfair found the evidence for extinction conclusive, and, in spite of Lamarck, Curvier convinced the scientific world that there could no longer be any doubt about it. This was a step the importance of which, with his limited knowledge of biogeography and population, Cuvier could not have fully realized. Lamarck attempted, with his evolutionary theory, to circumvent the necessity for admitting extinction, but he overestimated the adaptability of organisms and in doing so he underestimated the importance of competition and the whole field of ecology. On the other hand, he was not willing to let questions such as the origin of species remain taboo to science. The origin of species was a biogeographical as well as a paleontological question. Humboldt correlated environment with the distribution of species and conveyed the impression that plant communities are subject to change. De Candolle, following the lead of Linnaeus and Humboldt, emphasized the ecological aspects of biogeography, not only the importance of habitat and range, clearly showing the ecological effects of competition. The entomologists Kirby and Spence took a faltering step toward understanding the relationship between population and ecological role, but they fell short of any significant new conclusions. Neither they nor Swainson could fully comprehend the new perspective of De Candolle.Lyell was able to bring together the evidence from these three lines of investigation and weave them into an important synthesis that almost accomplished that Darwin later did. Although opposing Lamarck's theory of evolution, Lyell had a dynamic view of ecology. He realized that population dynamics offered an important key to the understanding of biogeography. Since he knew that species become extinct, he investigated closely the factors which could either preserve or extinguish species. While explaining these factors, he described the interrelationships of species in greater detail than had ever been done before. Forbes continued to develop Lyell's ecological concepts, and his first-hand field experience enabled him to describe biotic communities more concretely than Lyell had.Having the advantages of Lyell's understanding and his own experience from a global voyage, Darwin could take the final step from the static to the dynamic concept of life. He had seen populations fluctuating and also fossil species in South America, and on the Galapagos Islands he had encountered a biogeographical problem that could not be credibly solved without the idea of evolution. However, the bare idea of evolution did not fully answer his questions. He sought physiological causes of extinction before he read Malthus and realized that De Candolle and Lyell had correctly emphasized the importance of competition. Darwin found that, in order to understand evolution, he needed to improve his understanding of ecology. He wanted to know when populations were most easily decimated, how extensive were competition and cooperation, what effects parasites have upon populations, and what changes occur in biotic communities when a species is either added or subtracted. He contributed to some extent to answering these questions. Though there remained much for others to do, there was now a new and more secure theoretical framework within which later studies could be interpreted. As Ernst Mayr has observed, Darwin's “consistent thinking in terms of population has had an impact on biological theory and practice which is second only to his sponsorship of natural selection as the mechanism of evolution.” 135. (shrink)

Gary L. Francione is a law professor and leading philosopher of animal rights theory. Robert Garner is a political theorist specializing in the philosophy and politics of animal protection. Francione maintains that we have no moral justification for using nonhumans and argues that because animals are property—or economic commodities—laws or industry practices requiring "humane" treatment will, as a general matter, fail to provide any meaningful level of protection. Garner favors a version of animal rights that focuses on (...) eliminating animal suffering and adopts a protectionist approach, maintaining that although the traditional animal-welfare ethic is philosophically flawed, it can contribute strategically to the achievement of animal-rights ends. As they spar, Francione and Garner deconstruct the animal protection movement in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and elsewhere, discussing the practices of such organizations as PETA, which joins with McDonald's and other animal users to "improve" the slaughter of animals. They also examine American and European laws and campaigns from both the rights and welfare perspectives, identifying weaknesses and strengths that give shape to future legislation and action. (shrink)

To study animal welfare empirically we need an objective basis for deciding when an animal is suffering. Suffering includes a wide range ofunpleasant emotional states such as fear, boredom, pain, and hunger. Suffering has evolved as a mechanism for avoiding sources ofdanger and threats to fitness. Captive animals often suffer in situations in which they are prevented from doing something that they are highly motivated to do. The an animal is prepared to pay to attain or to (...) escape a situation is an index ofhow the animal about that situation. Withholding conditions or commodities for which an animal shows (i.e., for which it continues to work despite increasing costs) is very likely to cause suffering. In designing environments for animals in zoos, farms, and laboratories, priority should be given to features for which animals show inelastic demand. The care ofanimals can thereby be based on an objective, animal-centered assessment of their needs. (shrink)

The key role that animals play in our aesthetic appreciation of the natural world has only gradually been highlighted in discussions in environmental aesthetics. In this article I make use of the phenomenological notion of 'perceptual sense' as developed by Merleau-Ponty to argue that open-ended expressive-responsive movement is the primary aesthetic ground for our appreciation of animals. It is through their movement that the array of qualities we admire in animals are manifest qua animal qualities. Against functionalist and formalist (...) accounts, I defend and develop an account of expressive-responsive movement as the primary perceptual sense of animals. I go on to suggest that the primacy of movement in the aesthetic appreciation of animals is also the primary sense of animal 'wildness', and that a key part of the rewilding paradigm should be the development of such appreciation. (shrink)