Arthurs animal s
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Human animals and their society, on this view, is similar to that of an ant and an ant colony.Įric Olson (2011) has argued that this extended view is not compatible with animalism on the basis that animals don’t extend beyond their skin. If this is the case, then the distinction between our individuality and that of our society is one that cannot easily be made. One could be inspired by the Extended Self-hypothesis which suggests that the boundary of the self is not skin-deep, but may extend beyond the self into the external world via machinery (such as a computer), other people (a close relationship with a partner, perhaps), or even a whole society. The boundary itself is blurred such that one cannot easily distinguish where one begins and the other ends. Perhaps, one could suggest, the boundary between a human individual and their society isn’t one that is easily defined.
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That is if we assume that animalism is true (that is, if we assume that our being human animals is what is essential to our being an individual) then what is the relationship between a human animal and the society to which it belongs? In what follows I want to address at least two interesting conversations that could be had on this topic. Understandably, questions and conversations regarding animalism have mostly been limited to those in metaphysics, but I want to investigate what animalism could have to say about our relationship to society. This view is often seen to be opposed to neo-Lockean views of our identity which suggest that our being “persons” of some sort, rather than human animals, is what is essential. More specifically, animalism is the view that we are essentially human animals. That is, what it means for a human person to be an individual is to be a human animal-an organism of the species Homo sapiens. In debates about personal identity, animalism is the view that human persons are human animals. Candidate School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science University of Leeds