Vinciane DESPRET - Using the Animal to Understand Man ?

Pouvoirs n°131 - Les animaux - novembre 2009 - p.5-17

How should the question of “the animal as a model for man” be approached, while avoiding giving credit to both the idea of human Exceptionalism and the idea that man is simply an animal like any other ? Three approaches, based on the research of a number of scientific scholars, are presented here. The first approach reframes the notion of Exceptionalism by stating that in fact animals are exceptional, which sets limits to the very idea of a “model”. The second approach critically questions the notion of who is taken into account in research focusing on models or understanding : is it the animal or is it man ? The third approach proposes to adopt a different conception of the model, based on the mètis, and invites us to redefine it in term of invention. Résumé

Référence électonique : Vinciane DESPRET, "Using the Animal to Understand Man ?", Pouvoirs, revue française d’études constitutionnelles et politiques, n°131, 2009, p.5-17. Consulté le 02-06-2012. URL : http://www.revue-pouvoirs.fr/Using-the-Animal-to-Understand-Man.html