
The History of Animals: A Philosophy
A Philosophy
Oxana Timofeeva(Author)
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Published on 3. May 2018
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-1-350-01200-4 (ISBN)
Description
Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals: A Philosophy is an original and ambitious treatment of the "animal question". While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. Timofeeva shows the way towards the full acceptance of our animality; an acceptance which does not mean the return to our animal roots, or anything similar. The freedom generated by this acceptance operates through negativity; is an effect of the rejection of the very core of metaphysical philosophy and Christian culture, traditionally opposed to our 'animal' nature and seemingly detached from it.
With a foreword by Slavoj Zizek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.
With a foreword by Slavoj Zizek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.
Reviews / Votes
[A] unique and extensive historical analysis of various conceptions of the animal and animality in Western thought ... Timofeeva's scholarship is impressive ... [The] book is thought provoking and an excellent resource for those interested in the place of the animal and animality in Western thought. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE * Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals is an original and sweeping treatment of the "animal question". While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. * Anthony Paul Smith, Assistant Professor of Philosophical Theology, La Salle University, USA * If philosophy is the love of wisdom, then Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals is a work of philosophy as the love for animals. Refusing to simply condemn philosophy for its mistreatment of animals, this book reconstructs how philosophers from Aristotle to Deleuze might be read to restore the philosophical dignity of animals. The History of Animals teaches us, us humans, to join with all the 'revolutionary animals' to win a new world. -- Benjamin Noys, Professor of Critical Theory, University of Chichester, UK This is a tour de force of originality and scholarship. Neither affirming the ethical or metaphysical equivalence of animals with humans, nor restoring an essential divide, her powerful genealogy of the animal in modern thought destroys any sense of purity or simplicity. What has come to be known as 'the human' has configured itself through a series of impossible relations to species that are at one and the same time enigmatic, proximate, anthropomorphized, alien and companionable. This book is a must read for anyone working in posthumanism or animal studies. -- Claire Colebrook, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Philosophy, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USAMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 209 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
339 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-01200-4 (9781350012004)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Oxana Timofeeva
The History of Animals: A Philosophy
E-Book
05/2018
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Oxana Timofeeva is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology at the European University at St. Petersberg, Russia.
Slavoj Zizek is one of the world's leading contemporary cultural critics and a hugely prolific author. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, UK, and Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA.
Slavoj Zizek is one of the world's leading contemporary cultural critics and a hugely prolific author. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, UK, and Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA.
Author
European University in St. Petersburg, Russia
Introduction
Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK
Content
preface
acknowledgements
Foreword by Slavoj Zizek
1. Oedipus the Horse
2. Before the Law
3. The Insane
4. Insecure, Anxious and Unhappy
5. Unemployed Animality
6. Dialectics of the Fish
7. The Shepherd of Being
8. Poor Life
bibliography
index
acknowledgements
Foreword by Slavoj Zizek
1. Oedipus the Horse
2. Before the Law
3. The Insane
4. Insecure, Anxious and Unhappy
5. Unemployed Animality
6. Dialectics of the Fish
7. The Shepherd of Being
8. Poor Life
bibliography
index