[Full title: Lo(o)sing “the Animal”: Classical Chinese Philosophical
Literature and Contemporary Discussion]
I.
This essay investigates the integral role of the animal in
two contexts: the classical context of Chinese philosophical literature, in
which the animal often functions as a site for the (de)construction of
relational epistemologies, and the present context of the globalization of
animal welfare initiatives and activism, in which the animal often functions as
an object of debate in discussions about rights.
For the animal to become the singular point of transaction
that yokes these two contexts together, the displacement of each context by the
other is essential. Therefore, classical Chinese philosophy can inform
contemporary debates about human-animal relation, while the basic issues and
terms of contemporary debates can guide a contemporary reading of classical
Chinese philosophy. This displacement will, I hope, open up for investigation
paths and ways of understanding that have, until now, been inaccessible or
obscured by the sedimentation of juridical and implicitly imperialistic
frameworks evoked by such notions as “animal rights.” My final goal in bringing
these seemingly unrelated contexts into conversation with one another is to
establish the necessary ethical center for a new politics of human-animal
relation, a center that I argue is present in an emergent form in the Zhuangzi.
