Philosophy and Animal Life

In Philosophy and Animal Life, Cora Diamond begins with "The Difficulty of Reality and the Difficulty of Philosophy," in which she accuses analytical philosophy of evading, or deflecting, the responsibility of human beings toward nonhuman animals. Diamond then explores the animal question in the more general problem of philosophical skepticism. Focusing specifically on J. M. Coetzee's The Lives of Animals, she considers the failure of language to capture the vulnerability of humans and animals.

Stanley Cavell responds to Diamond's argument with his own close reading of Coetzee's work, connecting the human-animal relationship to further themes of morality and philosophy. John McDowell follows with a critique of both Diamond and Cavell, and Ian Hacking explains why Cora Diamond's essay is so deeply perturbing and, paradoxically, favors poetry over philosophy in overcoming her difficulties. Cary Wolfe's introduction situates these arguments within the broader context of contemporary continental philosophy and theory, particularly Jacques Derrida's work on deconstruction and the question of the animal.

Stanley Cavell is the Walter M. Cabot Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. His books include Philosophy the Day After Tomorrow, The Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage; and The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy.

Cora Diamond is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Philosophy and professor of law at the University of Virginia and the author of The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind.

John McDowell is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Mind and World, Mind, Value, and Reality, and Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality.

Ian Hacking is University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Toronto and held the Chair of philosophy and history of scientific concepts at the Collège de France. His books include The Social Construction of What?, Historical Ontology, and The Taming of Chance (Ideas in Context).

Cary Wolfe is Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English at Rice University. His books include Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory, and the edited collection Zoontologies: The Question of the Animal. He is the founding editor of the series Posthumanities at the University of Minnesota Press.