No Humans Involved The race-animal connection and its importance for Western philosophy
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2021-07-22
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en
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Abstract
This thesis explores the connection between Western concepts of race and animality in the history of colonialism, transatlantic slavery and Enlightenment thought. Drawing on the work of Zakiyyah Iman Jackson and Sylvia Wynter, I show that the Western category of ‘the human’ that emerged from this history is predicated on the abjection of blackness and animality. I argue that Western philosophy has contributed to the emergence and perpetuation of this category of the human. Up until now, efforts to dismantle this category have been insufficient because they neglect the antiblackness that is central to the Western concepts of humanity and animality. Thus, to truly challenge the category of the human and end its antiblack and animal violence, Western philosophy should acknowledge and address the race-animal connection.
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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen