Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s ...
More
This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s perspective is resolutely informed by Continental Philosophy, which brings her to articulate a very strong critique of the pragmatist frame through which animal rights are often defended. Fontenay seeks to maintain the anthropological difference between man and animal that Singer and Cavalieri openly and brazenly, upon Fontenay’s account, ignore. While seeking to articulate the need for animal rights, Fontenay does not for as much encourage an abandon of what she calls the “human exception,” a defense of which she mounts in her chapter on “The Improper.” If the human exception must be maintained, Fontenay is attentive to the ways in which the account of the fragility common to animals and humans should lead to new ways of thinking about ethics and politics. Singer and Cavalieri are taken to task for ignoring the importance of this human exception (and, as a result, minimizing the crimes against humanity committed during the Shoah) and argues that animal rights should further develop their already extant legal status “between possessions and persons.” For Fontenay, it is not enough simply to investigate how philosophers, politicians or artists consider animals or the question of their rights nor is not enough for these different discourses simply to make mention of the “animal cause” to qualify them as allies in the struggle for animal rights.Less
This book pursues the investigation Fontenay began in her magnum opus, The Silence of the Beasts: Philosophy Confronts Animality with a series of essays of somewhat more topical reach. Fontenay’s perspective is resolutely informed by Continental Philosophy, which brings her to articulate a very strong critique of the pragmatist frame through which animal rights are often defended. Fontenay seeks to maintain the anthropological difference between man and animal that Singer and Cavalieri openly and brazenly, upon Fontenay’s account, ignore. While seeking to articulate the need for animal rights, Fontenay does not for as much encourage an abandon of what she calls the “human exception,” a defense of which she mounts in her chapter on “The Improper.” If the human exception must be maintained, Fontenay is attentive to the ways in which the account of the fragility common to animals and humans should lead to new ways of thinking about ethics and politics. Singer and Cavalieri are taken to task for ignoring the importance of this human exception (and, as a result, minimizing the crimes against humanity committed during the Shoah) and argues that animal rights should further develop their already extant legal status “between possessions and persons.” For Fontenay, it is not enough simply to investigate how philosophers, politicians or artists consider animals or the question of their rights nor is not enough for these different discourses simply to make mention of the “animal cause” to qualify them as allies in the struggle for animal rights.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. ...
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Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. Fontenay argues that taking animals into philosophical account should not lead to neglect for what she calls the “human exception” but rather to a revalorization of its vital fragility.Less
Chapter 3 (Between Possessions and Persons) is a forceful critique of one of the main proponents of animal rights, the Australian philosopher Peter Singer along with his acolyte Paola Cavalieri. Fontenay argues that taking animals into philosophical account should not lead to neglect for what she calls the “human exception” but rather to a revalorization of its vital fragility.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some ...
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Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some of these instances, Derrida may over-generalize and thus elide certain anthropological specificities but praises his continued engagement with the animal question.Less
Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some of these instances, Derrida may over-generalize and thus elide certain anthropological specificities but praises his continued engagement with the animal question.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights ...
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Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights and carelessly avoids the true ethical and political questions posed by genetic engineering.Less
Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights and carelessly avoids the true ethical and political questions posed by genetic engineering.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding ...
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Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding and slaughter. It provides a coda to the book by reframing the need for rights to be attributed to animals.Less
Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding and slaughter. It provides a coda to the book by reframing the need for rights to be attributed to animals.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for ...
More
Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for the necessity of maintaining its exceptionality.Less
Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for the necessity of maintaining its exceptionality.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of ...
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Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of financial feudalism” and a book on “the spirit of the beasts,” in the context of the pseudo-science of physiognomy.Less
Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of financial feudalism” and a book on “the spirit of the beasts,” in the context of the pseudo-science of physiognomy.
Élisabeth de Fontenay
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816676040
- eISBN:
- 9781452947655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816676040.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each ...
More
Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each of these philosopher’s works a “tempered” version of the human exception.Less
Chapter 5 (They Are Sleeping and We Are Watching Over Them) investigates how the “animal question” was treated in the works of Adorno and Horkheimer, Aristotle, Leibniz and Husserl, finding in each of these philosopher’s works a “tempered” version of the human exception.
