What Animals Whould You Want To Be

What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?

2016

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Author:

Vinciane Despret
Translated by Brett Buchanan
Foreword by Bruno Latour

A provocative challenge to the marginalization of "humanlike" aspects of creature life

Vinciane Despret argues that behaviors we place every bit separating humans from animals practise not actually properly vest to humans. Combining serious scholarship with humor, this book poses xx-six questions that stretch our preconceived ideas about what animals do, what they think well-nigh, and what they want.

Y'all are most to enter a new genre, that of scientific fables, by which I don't mean scientific discipline fiction, nor fake stories about scientific discipline but, on the contrary, truthful ways of agreement how hard information technology is to figure out what animals are upward to.

—

Bruno Latour, from the Foreword

"You are about to enter a new genre, that of scientific fables, by which I don't hateful science fiction, nor false stories about science but, on the opposite, true ways of agreement how difficult it is to figure out what animals are up to." —Bruno Latour

Is information technology all right to urinate in front of animals? What does it mean when a monkey throws its feces at you? Do apes really know how to ape? Do animals form same-sexual activity relations? Are they the new celebrities of the twenty-first century? This book poses twenty-6 such questions that stretch our preconceived ideas about what animals do, what they recall near, and what they want.

In a delightful abecedarium of 20-six chapters, Vinciane Despret argues that behaviors we identify every bit separating humans from animals practice non actually properly belong to humans. She does so by exploring incredible and often funny adventures about animals and their involvements with researchers, farmers, zookeepers, handlers, and other human beings. Do animals a have sense of sense of humour? In reading these stories it is evident that they do seem to have perverse pleasure in creating scenarios that unsettle fifty-fifty the greatest of experts, who in plough devise newer and riskier hypotheses that invariably lead them to conclude that animals are non almost as impaired as previously thought.

These deftly translated accounts oblige us, forth the fashion, to appoint in both ethology and philosophy. Combining serious scholarship with humor that will resonate with anyone, this volume—with a foreword by noted French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist of scientific discipline Bruno Latour—is a must not only for specialists but also for general readers, including domestic dog owners, who will never await at their canine companions the same way once more.

Vinciane Despret is associate professor of philosophy at University of Liège and Free University of Brussels. Her 8 books include Women Who Brand a Fuss (with Isabelle Stengers) and Our Emotional Makeup.

Brett Buchanan is manager of the School of the Environs and associate professor of philosophy and environmental studies at Laurentian University, Canada.

Y'all are well-nigh to enter a new genre, that of scientific fables, by which I don't mean science fiction, nor false stories nearly science but, on the contrary, true means of agreement how difficult it is to figure out what animals are upwardly to.

—

Bruno Latour, from the Foreword

Despret's volume is a timely one—equally today upstanding questions related to animals seem to exist almost everywhere.

Many philosophers take considered the issue of animate being rights, but Despret considerably broadens the range of moral and philosophical concerns in this field.

This book is an exhilarating rst step toward knowing how to bear interspecies philosophical examinations, but we remain far from knowing.

Contents
Foreword. The Scientific Fables of an Empirical La Fontaine
Bruno Latour
Acknowledgments
How to Use This Volume
Translator's Note
A for Artists: Stupid like a painter?
B for Beasts: Practice apes really ape?
C for Corporeal: Is information technology all right to urinate in front end of animals?
D for Delinquents: Can animals defection?
E for Exhibitionists: Practice animals see themselves every bit we see them?
F for Fabricating Science: Exercise animals have a sense of prestige?
K for Genius: With whom would extraterrestrials want to negotiate?
H for Hierarchies: Might the dominance of males exist a myth?
I for Impaired: Are animals reliable models of morality?
J for Justice: Can animals compromise?
K for Killable: Are any species killable?
L for Laboratory: What are rats interested in during experiments?
M for Magpies: How can we interest elephants in mirrors?
N for Necessity: Can i lead a rat to infanticide?
O for Oeuvres: Practise birds make fine art?
P for Pretenders: Can deception be proof of good manners?
Q for Queer: Are penguins coming out of the closet?
R for Reaction: Do goats concur with statistics?
Southward for Separations: Tin can animals be broken downward?
T for Tying Knots: Who invented language and mathematics?
U for Umwelt: Do beasts know ways of being in the world?
V for Versions: Exercise chimpanzees die like we do?
Due west for Work: Why do we say that cows don't practice anything?
Ten for Xenografts: Can one live with the middle of a pig?
Y for YouTube: Are animals the new celebrities?
Z for Zoophilia: Can horses consent?
Notes
Index