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    The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and the Human-Animal Divide
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    The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and the Human-Animal Divide
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    The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and the Human-Animal Divide
    Ebook244 pages3 hours

    The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and the Human-Animal Divide

    By Alison Suen

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Animals regularly populate philosophical texts as a foil to illustrate what it means to be human. How should we understand this human-animal divide? Not only does it inform us of who we are, it also tells us how we should relate to the larger non-human world. The Speaking Animal interrogates the human-animal divide by looking at our linguistic differences – how the speaking human subject is constructed through its opposition to the dumb animal. Alison Suen begins with an analysis of the role of language in animal ethics, with an eye toward the voice/voiceless opposition that is at work in animal advocacy. After offering a critical analysis of the ethical and political significance of speaking for animals, the book takes on a more constructive turn, going against the usual interpretation of language as a capacity that allows us to reason. Instead, it argues that our language capacity is also a relational capacity. Language is that which enables us to develop kinship with others – including animal others.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRowman & Littlefield International
    Release dateOct 2, 2015
    ISBN9781783485130
    Unavailable
    The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and the Human-Animal Divide
    Author

    Alison Suen

    Alison Suen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Iona College, USA. She is the author of The Speaking Animal (2015).

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