THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS: A PHILOSOPHY

A novel yet comprehensive exploration of the history of animals in philosophy, featuring an original foreword from Slavoj Žižek.

Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals: A Philosophy is an original and ambitious treatment of the “animal question”. While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. Timofeeva shows the way towards the full acceptance of our animality; an acceptance which does not mean the return to our animal roots, or anything similar. The freedom generated by this acceptance operates through negativity; is an effect of the rejection of the very core of metaphysical philosophy and Christian culture, traditionally opposed to our ‘animal' nature and seemingly detached from it.

With a foreword by Slavoj Žižek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those
interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.

Oxana Timofeeva is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology at the European University at St. Petersberg, Russia. Slavoj Žižek is one of the world's leading contemporary cultural critics and a hugely prolific author. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, UK, and Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA.