ANIMALS AND ANIBUENES. THE HUMAN, THE SUBHUMAN, AND THE NON-HUMAN

Abstract

The division between nature and culture, typical of the Western modern thought, has been established as the ontological foundation of racist, sexist and speciesist violence. With the conquest of America in 1492, the possibility of asserting itself in the face of a new alterity was born for Europe. On the one hand, the concept of race , with the purpose of delimiting the order of the human against the order of the subhuman and the non-human. On the other hand, Christian patriarchy is globalized: the burning of witches, on the one hand, and the distinction between woman and female on the other, appear as two of the most notable consequences. Finally, the Cartesian philosophy of the 17th century calls into question the Aristotelian worldview, in force until now, according to which animals have a soul: a nourishing and sensitive soul. The animal turns into a machine.