Philo-zoophy. An Overview of Theoretical Concepts in Animal Studies 4018-KON351-CLASS
The course will start with an outline of the historical context - an overview of key concepts referenced (in a positive or negative way) by theoreticians of animal studies (classes 2-6). Next we will try to roughly define the scope of this discipline (class 7). The next series of meetings (8-13) will be devoted to different approaches to the issue of animals from authors of the Anglo-Saxon (analytical) tradition. Further on in the course we will consider how animals were treated in religious philosophy originating from the Christian tradition (class 14), moving on to discuss authors from the "Continental" tradition (15-23). In the final part of the semester (meetings 24-25) we will consider how the analytical and "Continental" perspectives relate to each other and whether they can complement each other.
1. Introduction. Analysis of the syllabus. Information on tests and papers
2. Descartes and the problem of the animal machine
3. Michel de Montaigne's theriophily
4. Kant and the moral status of animals
5. Bentham and the question of suffering
6. The animals of Zarathustra
7. Animal studies today – outline of the discipline
8. Singer and the utilitarian tradition
9. Animal rights
11. Benefiting from Kant
12. Associated species
13. The problems of rationalism
14. Religion, animals and the immortality of the soul
15. Animals "poor in world"
16. Animot
17. Animal, response, and psychoanalysis
18. Breaking the boundary
19. Becoming-an-animal
20. Braidotti: becoming and feminism
21. The animals within us
22. Putting Foucault to use
23. Queer contexts
24. What do we need Continental philosophy for?
25. Joining perspectives
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
K_W:
– knowing the main theoretical basic approaches of the current animal studies K_W01
– knowing the main methods of interpreting literary and philosophical texts and textual historical sourcesK_W13
– knowing and understanding the main methods of analysing and interpreting products of culture in conjunction with traditionK_W07
K_U:
– analysing artistic, philosophical and sociological texts using the appropriate research tools, and presenting the results of such workK_U02
– basic skills in using interdisciplinary research methods and tools to analyse phenomena of contemporary cultureK_U05
– presenting the results of one’s own analysis of research problems in oral, written and multimedia formK_U08
K_K:
– understanding the dynamics of scientific, cultural and social development and keeping up with new research methods and paradigmsK_K03
Assessment criteria
The following elements make up the final grade
– active participation in classes (60% of the final grade), meaning:
a) being prepared for class (30%): participants are required to read texts carefully and take part in discussions
b) preparing a report (30%): course participants will be required to prepare a report assessing the value of an analysed text from the point of view of practical applications: legal, ethical or related to research;
– written paper (about ten standard pages, 40% of the final grade) on a topic agreed upon with the teacher, referencing the literature discussed in class as well as at least one additional text.
Bibliography
Literaturę wymaganą do zaliczenia przedmiotu stanowią wszystkie pozycje omawiane w ramach zajęć. Literatura dodatkowa podana jest poniżej:
B. Buchanan, Onto-Ethologies. The Animal Environments of Uexküll, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, Albany: SUNY Press 2008.
M. Calarco, Zoographies. The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida, New York: Columbia University Press 2008.
J. Castricano [ed.], Animal Subjects. An Ethical Reader in a Posthuman World, Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press 2008.
P. Cavalieri, The Animal Question: Why Nonhuman Animals Deserve Human Rights, transl. by Catherine Woollard, New York: Oxford University Press 2001.
P. Cavalieri, The Death of the Animal: A Dialogue, New York: Columbia University Press 2009.
G. Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, tłum. T. Conley, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2003.
G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature, tłum. Dana Polan, London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1986.
E. De Fontenay, Le silence de bêtes, Paris: Fayard 1998.
J. Derrida, The Beast and the Sovereign, Vols I and II, tłum. Geofferey Bennington, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
J. Derrida, J.-L. Nancy, Eating Well, [w:] E. Cadava, P. Connor, J.-L. Nancy, What Comes After the Subject?, London/New York: Routledge 1991.
J. Derrida, E. Roudinesco, Violence Against Animals [w:] For What Tomorrow: a Dialogue, tłum. J. Fort, Stanford: Stanford University Press 2004.
T. Gontier, De l'homme à l'animal. Montaigne et Descartes ou paradoxes de la philosophie moderne sur la nature des animaux, Paris: Vrin 1998.
D. Haraway, When Species Meet, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2008.
O. Kelly, Animal Lessons. How They Teach Us to Be Human, New York: Columbia University Press 2009.
J. Rachels, Created from Animals. The Moral Implications of Darwinism, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press 1990.
S. Wróbel, Domesticating Animals: Description of a Certain Disturbance, Dialogue and Universalism, 1/2014.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: