Creaturely Cosmologies

A fine example of [a] multi-pronged, intersectional approach can be found in Brianne Donaldson's Creaturely Cosmologies: Why Metaphysics Matters for Animal and Planetary Liberation (Lexington 2015). Donaldson creatively takes up the challenge of linking work in critical animal studies with a broader ontological and political framework that extends beyond the human in a variety of directions. Her work is crucially important for current discussions in animal studies inasmuch as she is committed as both an activist and theorist to animal liberation while also working to expand non-anthropocentric politics to include a wide variety of other beings and relations. * The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *
[Donaldson] argues that better metaphysics are also good for animals, and she makes a strong case. * Society & Animals *
In Brianne Donaldson’s book, Creaturely Cosmologies, animal ethics and the question of being human are considered in new and inviting ways. . . . Creaturely Cosmologies converses with exciting and emerging perspectives in quantum theory, animal rights activism, and environmentalism while also offering fresh approaches to the works of Derrida, Foucault, Butler, Deleuze, and others who might be familiar to readers of this journal. As a whole, Creaturely Cosmologies is an accessible body of work for any wishing to appreciate an initial foray into Critical Animal Studies, Jainism, and Process-relational philosophy. * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture *
Both these books [Creaturely Cosmologies and Creaturely Love: How Desire Makes us More and Less than Human by Dominic Pettman] are significant contributions in the domain of Critical Animal Studies and Planetary Studies as both launch a substantial critique of speciesism or species exceptionalism. . . . Based on her studies of Jainism, Donaldson perfectly utilizes Jainist Ahimsa in her exposition of post-hierarchist society of planetary future. . . . Both the books succeed in significant ways to plough new furrows in the domain of planetary studies. * Café Dissensus *
“With this important and exciting work, Brianne Donaldson simultaneously advances several important conversations, as well as demonstrating the interconnections that bind them. By integrating eco-criticism and metaphysics–two discourses long seen as mutually antithetical–she enlivens both, and points toward ways in which each can be mutually supportive. Similarly, her integration of Whiteheadian process thought and Jainism builds upon and extends earlier work on these two philosophies in exciting and important new directions, showing the relevance of both of these ‘creaturely cosmologies’ to conceptualizing a less cruel, more ecologically conscious global civilization. Her constructive use of Jain thought and practice, in particular, helps to spotlight a very important, ancient, and all too often overlooked wisdom tradition with profound relevance to contemporary issues. The need to rethink humanity’s relationship to the rest of the planet has never been more urgent. With this work, Brianne Donaldson shows herself to be a leading light in showing the way to the kind of cosmological thinking that is so badly needed today. -- Jeffrey D. Long, Elizabethtown College
Rarely does a single book captivate us at both ends of the spectrum simultaneously. Bridging the metaphysics of East and West, Donaldson will lead you to deeper feeling of ‘the creaturely multitudes, the active shadows of our buzzing universe, too long marginalized by a dominant and falsely separated human.’ These pages invite you into new adventures of thought, co-feeling, intra-being, and activism. -- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor of Theology, Claremont School of Theology, Author of In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World
Donaldson is to be thanked for bringing primary and secondary literature in the Jain tradition to bear on ethical issues surrounding nonhuman animals. She is also to be thanked for bringing the Jains and critical animal studies into conversation with process thinkers. All three areas are enriched as a result. -- Daniel A. Dombrowski, Seattle University
In this startling encounter of critical animal studies with both process and Jain cosmologies, something new roars, flutters, slithers into being: beautifully readable, ethically compelling, theoretically profound —a new becoming of the creature, a “becoming creaturely.”   -- Catherine Keller, Drew University, Author of Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement
In this refreshing, elegantly written study Donaldson brings together two streams of creative constructivism—Process thought and Jainism—and artfully demonstrates the centrality of animals in the formation of our living universe. Drawing from her experiences with the Jaina community in India, she suggests new ways in which to engage the world with tenderness, care, and nonviolence. -- Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University
This significant, interdisciplinary work challenges the systemic domination of animals and offers possible worldviews that can refuse human-centeredness. Donaldson’s wise book is an invitation to, and guide for, enlarging our creaturely community. It couldn’t be more timely. -- Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat
Donaldson brings together the latest developments in critical animal studies with an astonishingly wide range of worldviews, ontologies, and ethical frameworks, providing a novel reconception of life and relation aimed at overcoming the dualisms that have plagued Western thought and culture. Her persistent desire to rethink a more generous mode of planetary coexistence opens up possibilities for living differently that will be of profound interest and importance for theorists and activists alike. -- Matthew Calarco, California State University, Fullerton, Author of Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Derrida to Heidegger
Donaldson makes clear that the claim of all living things for our concern calls not for marginal adjustments but for deep transformation of attitudes and behavior. She shows that our growing recognition of our interaction with our natural environment will not gain adequate realization without a change at the level of metaphysics. Her presentation of Whitehead and Jainism as real options for the needed change is convincing. -- John B. Cobb Jr., Claremont School of Theology, Co-founder of the Center for Process Studies
With passion and erudition, Creaturely Cosmologies makes a plea to take metaphysics seriously, arguing that our postmodern metaphysical-eliminationist stances are self-refuting (in that they too are metaphysically-grounded), and only serve to perpetuate deeply ingrained violent ways of being in the world. Through the examples of the Indian tradition of Jainism, with its ancient call to nonviolence, and Whitehead’s Process Philosophy, with its exploration of life as dynamic processes of becoming, Donaldson engages us in a fascinating discussion that, ultimately, forces us to consider the implications of our contemporary ways of thinking, and of being, in a world made up of others. -- Anne Vallely, University of Ottawa, Author of Guardians of the Transcendent: An Ethnography of a Jain Ascetic Community
Donaldson does something here that should command the attention of animal scholars and advocates both: by bringing Whitehead and Jainism into a surprisingly fecund dialogue with Foucault and Deleuze, she manages to rehabilitate metaphysics for a posthumanist age. Creaturely Cosmologies is animal studies in a new key, unafraid to mix religious tradition with postmodern theory. -- Ralph R. Acampora, Hofstra University