Animals and Us, Us as Animals

The field of animal ethics in philosophy has seen a variety of approaches since its recent resurgence. In this discussion, J. M. Coetzee’s book The Lives of Animals serves as a focal point. Two contrasting responses to Coetzee’s work are presented. The first response takes a traditional approach to the animal question, which aims to prevent suffering, improve animal welfare, and reject speciesism. The second response is more radical and emphasizes that the animal question is not just about animals, but also about us, human animals. This approach helpfully highlights the limitations of rational, philosophical thought when it comes to understanding the complexity of the animal question and ascribes the limitation to the phenomenon of the difficulty of reality.