Review

Author(s): ELISA AALTOLA

Review by: ELISA AALTOLA
Source: Environmental Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (February 2009), pp. 118-122
Published by: White Horse Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30302119
Accessed: 27-12-2015 18:35 UTC

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118

BOOK REVIEWS

AnimalSubjects:An EthicalReader in a PosthumanWorld

JodeyCastricano(ed.)
Waterloo,Ontario:WilfridLaurierUniversityPress,2008
ISBN: 978-0-88920-512-3(PB) $38.95. 324 pp.

JodeyCastricano'seditedcollection,AnimalSubjects:An EthicalReader
in a PosthumanWorld,is an interesting read. It consistsof fourteenpre-
viouslyunpublishedessays , whichmake use of a wide varietyof meta-
theoretical approaches(thus,someareblatantly'postmodern',whilstsome
are unashamedlyanalytical).The commonthreadin all is the searchfor
non-anthropocentric waysof relatingto animals.Some of theessays make
thissearchexplicit,whilstsome merelymapouthistoricalrootsforcurrent
understandings concerningnon-human animals.
In theintroduction, JodeyCastricanocalls forinterdisciplinary animal
' .A centraltheme
studiesthatwouldbe basedon ' empathy andconnectedness
of thenew animalstudiesis theclaimthat'All livingbeingsprimarily feel
and intuitratherthanmerely"think"theworld'. Castricanouses Singer's
thoughts onequalitytohighlighttheimportance ofsentience. Sentience-based
empathy will lead to new 'production knowledge'concerninganimals.
of
Such knowledge,Castricanoargues,is neededinordertoavoidanimalmas-
sacreworthy ofsimilarmoralhorror as theNazi genocide.Thus,Castricano
is explicitin hermoralstance,and does notshyaway fromreminding us
whatthestakesare: discussionof animalsis notan abstractendeavour,but
rathera matterthatcan have a verydirectimpacton beingsmade of blood
and bones.
The firstessay is by Donna Haraway,who leads us to theworldof the
chickenin herironicwritingstylethatcombinesplayfulnesswithwords
withhorrific details.Harawayurgesus to 'followthechickenand findthe
-
world' presumablya worldwithoutthe biopoliticsthatrenderlife and
wonderintomeatandhierarchies. Nextinlineis Rod Preece,whocontinues
witha different takeon biopolitics.The essay offersa philosophicalcriti-
cismof theselfishgenetheory.Preeceexpressesa worrythatthevalues of
bothanimalsand ethicsgethiddenwhengenestakecontrol.In particular,
spontaneity and altruismpresentproblems:how can thesefactorsexistif
all we do is followthereproduction of our genes?The thirdessay contin-
ues on thethemeof bio-politics.Dawne McCance discussestheautopsies
performed by Vesalius. She arguesthatthatexpose, whichwas crucialto
autopsies, became an important
partofmodernity. In thismodel,thesubject
becomesone ofauthority, andtheobjectloses all poweras thethingwhichis

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laid bare.McCance emphasisesthatdissectionwas crucialin theCartesian

emergenceof bio-power.
The fourthessayjumps to thefieldof meta-ethics, and specificallythe
debatesbetweenanalyticaland continentaltakeson animalissues. Paola
CavalieriarguesthatmuchofFrenchphilosophyis hopelesslyanthropocen-
tric.Foucault,Levinas and Derrida in particularare objectsof criticism.
Cavalieri maintainsthatthese philosopherscannotavoid the perfection-
ism theythemselveshave setout to challenge.She is especiallycriticalof
Derrida,and goes on to supportthetheoryof rights.The nextcontributor,
CaryWolfe,continuesthe discussionof Derridafroman entirely opposite
viewpoint.Wolfe startsoffby arguingthatanimal subjectivity can only
be represented via anti-representationalism
(we need to forsakeontology).
He offersDaniel Dennettwithhis functionalism as one possiblecandidate
forthenew approachbutconcludesthatDennettalso, in his insistenceon
language,ultimatelyreintroduces representationalism. Wolfe goes on to
considerDerridaas an alternative. Of particular
interestis Derrida'scritique
ofthecentrality oflanguage.WhereasCavalieriblamesDerridaforanthro-
pocentrism, Wolfe suggeststhatitis Derridawhomayholdkeyanswersfor
theway outof anthropocentrism.
Afterthesetworadicallydifferent treatmentsofcontinental philosophy,
MichaelAllen Fox and Lesley McLean searchfornew directionsin animal
ethicsvia exploringthehuman-animal relation.Theirmainpremiseis that
theworldneedstobe viewedas a 'moralspace' . We needtoestablisha moral
community thatwouldemphasisethingssharedintheconcrete, lived-inworld.
Fox and McLean also talkof theneed for'a phenomenological opening',
of whichDian Fossey's lifewithgorillasservesas an example.Theygo on
to use MarthaNussbaum'sterm'moralperception'to referto theneed to
reflect on moralissuesfromotherthana purelyintellectual viewpoint.Life
withoutperceptionenablesblindnesstowardsanimals(exemplifiedby the
vivisector),whichmayeven lead to a typeof psychopathy.
AngusTaylorcontinuesonthehuman-animal relation.He bringsforward
thenovelDo AndroidsDreamofElectricSheep? byPhilipK. Dick in order
to analyse 'the new argumentfromnature'.The argumentnaturaliseshu-
mans:we are one speciesamongstmany,a toppredator, in whosenatureit
is to use and eat otheranimals.Taylorclaimsthattheargument (presented,
forinstance,by Holmes Rolstonin and JoseOrtegay Gasset) has fascist
overtones.We mustbecometoppredatorswho can 'by rightof naturehunt
and killand dominateothersnotof ourkind'.This is whereDick becomes
relevant,forhe has concentrated on thedisguiseof mechanicalas human.
The inanimatepretendsto be animate,and thusmasksthecold searchfor

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BOOK REVIEWS

poweras humanauthenticity. In Do Androidsthebountyhunterhas to tell

thedifference betweenthe humanoidand the androidpretending to be a
humanoid.Empathytowardsanimalsuffering formsa crucialtest.Taylor
suggeststhatwe oughtto followDick and abandonthenewargument from
nature.
Afterbiopolitics,continental debateandethics,thebookturnstopractical
and historicalissues. JohnSorensonlooks intothemannerin whichcap-
tivemarinemammalsare treatedand defined.He concentrates particularly
on theCanadianthemepark'Marineland'and arguesthatthemeparksand
zoos ofthiskindareaboutpowerandexploitation. BarbaraSeeberanalyses
Mary Wollstonecraft's views of animality and maintains thatWollstonecraft
centralised sentienceandemphasisedconnections betweendifferent typesof
domination. David Sztybeldiscussestheideaofanimalpersonhood andwishes
toproposea newcriterion forpersonhood.We areto playa thought game:if
we weremomentarily givena view of theexperiencesof an animal,would
we see themas personalexperiences?If so, theyare personalexperiences,
and theanimalmust,thus,be a person.Lesli Bisgouldscrutinises a case of
cat torture, widely discussed in the Canadian media, in order to providean
example of what Gary Francione terms 'moral schizophrenia'in relationto
animals(we love some and eat others).Anne InnisDagg explorestheef-
fectivenessof animalexperimentation. She has conductedfourreviewsin
different fieldsof experimentation in orderto establishhow oftenresearch
papersare citedand suggeststhatoftentheexperiments are conductedin
orderto benefitthecareerof thescientistratherthanhumanhealth.In re-
searchreports,animalsare treatedas inconsequential. Accordingto Dagg,
at least 25 to 50 percentof experimentation is notworthdoing.
Finally,itis timeforphenomenology, whichJohannaTitoconsiderswith
particularemphasison Husserl.WhereasPlato would have us emphasise
rationality and abstraction, Husserlemphasises,accordingto Tito,seeing
or witnessing,whichpushesus intoeverydayreality(ratherthanseeking
to separateus fromthatreality).Tito also refersto thepostmodern thinker
GeorgesBataille, who made use of thenotion'non-knowledge' . The relevance
of innerexperiencemeansthatwe are constantly awareof non-knowledge
(incapacitytoknowtheworldobjectively).The resulting anguishwillenable
communication: theawarenessofincapacitywillmakeus facetheOther,and
attempt communication. Titoalso makesuse ofJacquesMaritain'snotionof
'poetic intuition' to statethatwe need to respectthemystery of theOther,
and let poeticslead us towardtheunknown.She also arguesthatphenom-
enologydoes notmake thingsutterly relative:'feel fortheanimal'is, like

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concepts,a wayofcomprehending All theseaspects,she maintains,

reality.
will lead us towardtheanimal- thesingularother.
Castricanohas succeededin herattemptto highlight theheterogeneity
of animalstudies.The essays offera shiningexampleof theplurality with
whichthe human-animal relationcan be investigated. The heterogeneity
at timesthrowsup interesting contrastsas different authorsinterpret the
same philosophiesin entirelydifferent ways. The lack of a deeper meta-
theoretical alliance is refreshing,as too oftensuch collectionsconcentrate
on particular theoretical perspectives(forinstance,theyareeitheranalytical
orcontinental). The pluralityis also manifested in thedifferent approaches:
some authorshave delveddeep intophilosophy, whilstsome have written
in a morepracticalor polemicalstyle.In lengthycollectionssuch as this,
suchvarietyis a welcomefeatureforthesimplereasonthatitmakesread-
ing moreenjoyable.It also enables lay people or firstyear studentswith
littleexperiencein philosophyto getsomething outof thebook- although
thebook is bestsuitedformoreadvancedstudentsor academics.Plurality
meansthatpeople fromvariousfields- notjust philosophy- will benefit
fromreadingthebook.
It has to be notedthatwithpluralityof viewpointscomes also plural-
of
ity quality.Some of thepapersare extremely well written and offerthe
readernovel perspectiveson animalissues, whilstothersare notas care-
fullyconstructed, includesome dubiousargumentation, and maynotbe as
freshas one could hope for.However,in general,thequalityof theessays
is good, and none are particularly bad. Anotherpointof criticismis that
thereare also some notablegaps in thecontents.Althoughculturalstud-
ies is an important partof animal studies,none of theessays concentrate
specifically on cultural theoryand representations of non-human animals.
The book is inherently philosophical:emphasis tends to be on the human-
animalrelationfroma metaphysicaland normativeviewpoint.Of course,
thebook explicitlysetsout to be aboutethicsand relations.Still,in order
to do justice to animalstudies,perhapsmoreemphasison culturaltheory
would have been in order.
The titlesetsoutto be aboutanimalsubjects,and thisprovidesthebook
an important focus. Up untilnow,themajorityof worksin animalethics
and, more generally, in animalstudieshave beenpreoccupiedwithhowhu-
manstreat,evaluateanddefineotheranimals.Althoughtheseareextremely
relevantissues, thereis a need formoreemphasison theanimalherself:
whatis theanimalthatwe talkabout,how do we come to understand her?
In thisrespect,thebookcould havedone evena littlemore:perhapsanimal
subjectivity shouldhave been emphasisedmoreconsistently as a combin-

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ingtheme.As such,thetopicis at timesmomentarily lostor remainsrather

implicit.However,overall,thebook succeedsin reminding us ofthebeings
thatlurkbehindconceptsand values relatedto animals.
Perhapsthebestfeature ofthebookis itsnormative mentioned
explicitness,
above. The editorand manyof theauthorsmake no secretof thefactthat
theyhopefora radicalchangein howanimalsare treatedand valued.There
has been some tendencyin animalstudiesto avoid thenormative element:
theanimalquestionis problematised ratherthananalysed,and normative
claims remainimplicit.Ethics concerninganimals is thusmarginalised,
presumablyin an effortto avoid the trappingsof analyticalphilosophy.
However,sinceanyviewson animalswill,bynecessity, expressnormative
the of is
stances, pretence 'non-normativity'hopeless and tiring.Castricano
and some of theauthorshave chosen well to takea different pathand to
manifesttheirviews.
A further positivefeatureis freshness.The book will be valuable par-
ticularlyforthoseinterested in new directionsin animalethicsand animal
studies,fornoveltyis at theheartof manyof theessays.Amongstothers,
theessays by Fox and McLean, Taylorand Tito are especiallyrewarding.
ELIS A AALTOLA
ManchesterMetropolitan Centre
University/Oxford forAnimalEthics
Email: eaaltola@gmail.com

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