The Boundaries of Human Nature - by Matthew Calarco (Paperback)

About the Book

Matthew Calarco explores key issues in the philosophy of animals and their significance for our contemporary world. The Boundaries of Human Nature shows readers why philosophy can help transform not just the way we think about animals but also how we interact with them.

Book Synopsis

Are animals capable of wonder? Can they be said to possess language and reason? What can animals teach us about how to live well? How can they help us to see the limitations of human civilization? Is it possible to draw firm distinctions between humans and animals? And how might asking and answering questions like these lead us to rethink human-animal relations in an age of catastrophic ecological destruction?

In this accessible and engaging book, Matthew Calarco explores key issues in the philosophy of animals and their significance for our contemporary world. He leads readers on a spirited tour of historical and contemporary philosophy, ranging from Plato to Donna Haraway and from the Cynics to the Jains. Calarco unearths surprising insights about animals from a number of philosophers while also underscoring ways in which the philosophical tradition has failed to challenge the dogma of human-centeredness. Along the way, he indicates how mainstream Western philosophy is both complemented and challenged by non-Western traditions and noncanonical theories about animals. Throughout, Calarco uses examples from contemporary culture to illustrate how philosophical theories about animals are deeply relevant to our lives today. The Boundaries of Human Nature shows readers why philosophy can help transform not just the way we think about animals but also how we interact with them.

Review Quotes

In this fascinating and thoughtful book, Calarco assembles a menagerie of animals and their philosophers to offer an engaging exploration of the many diverse, unequal, and often highly consequential ways in which human lives are made both meaningful and liveable in company with our animal others.--Thom van Dooren, author of The Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared Worlds

An elegant dive into philosophical perspectives on the human and the animal, ranging from ancient traditions to ecofeminism. Calarco intersperses new insights on animal capacities for moral agency, emotions, and language to support an argument for veganism. The result is a compelling read that invokes a sense of wonder before the mysteries of our fellow creatures.--Cynthia Willett, author of Interspecies Ethics

The Boundaries of Human Nature presents in elegant and succinct prose how animals have been regarded by leading thinkers from the Jains and early Greek thinkers to modern and late modern philosophers. Calarco gleans from this array of diverse authors a profound lesson: namely, that animals require our utmost regard and appreciation rather than being made subject to slaughter and mass extermination.--Edward S. Casey, author of The World on Edge

About the Author

Matthew Calarco is professor of philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. His books include Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida (Columbia, 2008) and Beyond the Anthropological Difference (2020).