Beyond the Anthropological Difference

An exploration of what human beings and animals might become once the traditional division between them no longer holds.

This Element provides a novel framework for understanding the nature of violence against animals. The author argues that the search for human uniqueness (an 'anthropological difference') is at the heart of this violence and should be replaced by a way of life based on the notion of human and animals being indistinct.The aim of this Element is to provide a novel framework for gaining a critical grasp on the present situation concerning animals. It offers reflections on resisting the established order as well as suggestions on what forms alternative, pro-animal ways of life might take. The central argument of the book is that the search for an anthropological difference - that is, for a marker of human uniqueness determined by way of a sharp human/animal distinction - should be set aside. In place of this traditional way of differentiating human beings from animals, the author sketches an alternative way of thinking and living in relation to animals based on indistinction, a concept that points toward the unexpected and profound ways in which human beings share in animal life, death, and potentiality. The implications of this approach are then examined in view of practical and theoretical discussions in the environmental humanities and related fields.