Critical Ethology and Post-Anthropocentric Ethics

The primary purpose of this book is to contribute to an overcoming of the traditional separation between humanties and life sciences which, according to the authors, is required today both by the developments of these disciplines and by the social problems they have to face. The volume discusses the theoretical, epistemological and ethical repercussions of the main acquisitions obtained in the last decades from the behavioral sciences. Both the authors are inspired by the concept of a critical ethology, oriented to archive the nature/culture and human/animal dichotomies. The book proposes a theoretical and methodological restructuring of the comparative study of the animal behavior, learning, and cultures, focused on the fact that thought, culture and language are not exclusively human prerogatives. The proposed analysis includes a critique of speciesism and determinism in the ethical field, and converge with the Numanities, to which the series is dedicated, on a key point: it isnecessary to arrive at an education system able to offer scientific, social and ethical skills that are trasversal and transcendent to the traditional humanities/life sciences bipartition. Skills that are indispensable for facing the complex challenges of the contemporary society and promoting a critical reflection of humanity on itself.

Changes the theoretical status of non-human animals Encourages a critical self-understanding of both individuals and contemporary human societies Offers a reflection on the practical consequences of anthropocentric attitudes Criticizes the view on animals as genetically or environmentally hetero-direct machines

Auteur
Marco Celentano is a Professor of Ethics and Moral Philosophy at the Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale (Italy), founder and coordinator of the Post-Graduate School of Philosophy, Ethics and Ethology, and member of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research and of the Italian Society of Moral Philosophy. He correlate in His studies different research fields: from ethology of knowledge, evolutionary epistemology to the philosophy of ethology and study of the animal minds and cultures. He also produced monographic studies on authors such as K. Lorenz, F. Nietzsche and Th. Adorno and several papers on the question of animal liberation and the contemporary anti-speciesist ethics. Amongst his publications for the English-speaking audience: From Konrad Lorenz's "phylogenetic apriorism" to the birth of Evolutionary Epistemology. In Andreica, O. - Olteanu, A. (eds.) Readings in Numanities, Springer 2017; Interspecific Cultural Convergences (ICC) and Interspecific Cultural Studies (ICS): From the only human towards a comparative history of animal uses and traditions in Ceccarelli D., Frezza G. (eds), Predicatbility and the Unpredictable, CNR Edizioni 2018; "Both for Ethics and Health. Non-Animal Technologies: an achievable goal", in Journal of Theoretical and Applied Vascular Research, 2 (1), 2017. Roberto Marchesini is Director of Siua (School of Human-Animal Interaction) and the Centro Studi Filosofia Postumanista (Centre Study for Post-human Philosophy), both based in Bologna, Italy. He has been a prominent voice in the development of zooanthropology and posthumanism in Italy and teaches human-animal interactions in courses around the country. He has written and co-written more than 30 books and 100 scientific essays. Amongst his main pubblications for the English-speaking audience: Over the human. Post-humanism and the Concept of Animal Epiphany (Springer 2017), The Philosophical Ethology of Roberto Marchesini (Routledge) and Beyond Anthropocentrism (Mimesis International) Roberto Marchesini runs an ethology blog on the major Italian Newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, and he is also member of the scientific board of Minding Animal International.

Contenu

From the Darwinian to the Ethological Revolutions. An Ongoing Process.- From Evolutionary Epistemology to an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.- Interspecific Cultural Studies and Numanities. The Comparative Study of Animal Traditions Beyond the Separation Between Humanities and Life Sciences.- Animal Learning: An Epistemological Problem.- The Obscure Object of Animal Subjectivity.- Intus-Legere : Knowledge as an Actualization Process.- Contributions of Ethology to the Birth of a Post-Anthropocentric Ethics.- A Re-Evaluation of Animal Interests Starting from a Critique of Maslow's Pyramid.- Behavioural and Cultural Epigenetics. The Social Biologisms Refuted by the Developments in Biology.