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Language reflects how we perceive our surroundings. Not only does it enable us to describe them but we also use linguistic expressions to express our ideas metaphorically. In view of this, language stores our observations and stereotypes and carries them as a culture that humans continually create and think about (Pitkin 1972; Bartminski 2005; Tolstaya 2015) in different linguistic forms that are passed down from one generation to the next. Using an ethnolinguistic approach and the help of semiotics, we can take a closer look at the deeper structures and meanings of short folklore forms and, moreover, social stereotypes. This article focuses on wild animals in proverbs, riddles and swear words, and their role in characterisation in short folklore forms.

Theis article considers an important aspects of the account of corporeality originally outlined by Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg, namely its relation to the animal organism. Contrary to the currently dominant naturalistic tendency, the German thinker shows the human body as not only quantitatively but also qualitatively different from the animal organism. To this end, Hengstenberg employs the principle of objectivity, which co-determines the human body and its organs and makes them essentially different from their animal counterparts. Man has a body whereas the animal is just an organism. Due to man’s specific ability to perform acts of a factual nature, the human spirit enables the body to perform two functions: biological (common to the animal world) and of an inorganic type. Human flesh should be considered in the physical sense and as an expression of the spirit. Hengstenberg developed his account on this issue from both a phenomenological and a metaphysical standpoint.

This paper proposes a new reading of Le Chevalier au Lion by Chrétien de Troyes inspired by the zoopoetics, a hermeneutical approach theorized by Anne Simon within the framework the animal turn in literary studies and human and social sciences. Centered on the meeting of the knight Yvain and a lion, this roman thematizes human animality and gives the human-animal relationship a narrative configuration. We argue that this configuration is a matter of metonymic contiguity (or continuity) rather than of metaphoric techniques typical of the symbolic thought, and that metonymic figuration favours a dynamic of liminalities, passages and exchanges. Le Chevalier au Lion is a text particularly fit for a zoopoetic approach as zoopoetics looks, in literary texts from the past, for ways of representing animals that challenge the analogic tradition of anthropomorphism. In short, the paper aims at shedding light on the modernity of Chrétien’s humanism.

This paper addresses the issue of the moral status of non-human animals, or the question whether sentient animals are morally considerable. The arguments for and against the moral status of animals are discussed, above all the argument from marginal cases. It is argued that sentient animals have moral status based on their having interests in their experiential well-being, but that there are degrees of moral status. Two interest-based approaches are presented and discussed: DeGrazia’s view that sentient animals have interests in continuing to live, and that their interests should be granted moral weight; and McMahan’s TRIA which similarly postulates that animals have interests and that in a given situation we should compare the human and animal interests at stake. Finally, the paper concludes that the anthropocentric approach to animal ethics should be abandoned in favour of the biocentric ethics.

Nietzschean reflections on the nature of animal being are part of the philosophical anthropology, which inquires the human nature and its relationship to animals. The Darwinian evolution theory and life philosophy question the Aristotelian definition of the essence of a human being as an animal rationale. Nietzsche differentiates the Human Being from the other animals essentially through his failures. This study must therefore analyze how denatured and troubled the Human Being, in his nature and his path, is. This will lead us to consider the potential role of educator played by animal being to help human being forget about their speci-ficity to eventually enjoy life to the fullest.

In addition to his academic contributions, Alfred Sohn-Rethel published several essays whose common feature turns out to be their brevity. These texts are structurally similar to Walter Benjamin’s “images of thought”, but unlike them, they have not yet been closely analysed. Analysis shows that they all deal with disturbances, irritations, unexpected incidents occurring in the social world—something that is hardly taken into account in Sohn-Rethel’s theoretical writings on the laws governing modern societies.

Between the Human and the Animal - The author of the contribution begins with Umberto Eco’s answer to the question: “Why philosophy?” which points to the distinction between human and animal. Based on Heidegger’s lectures entitled The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, where the question: “What is world?” is answered through the famous three theses about the “world-less-ness” of the stone, of the animal as being “poor-of-world,” and of the human being as the “creator of world,” the author gives a detailed analysis, accompanied with a critical reflection in defense of Heidegger’s position against Derrida’s critique of “anthropocentrism” and “Cartesianism.” In the final part, the author connects the conception of human-animal with the contemporary issue of ethics and responsibility with the aid of Nancy’s philosophy.

Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger (1939) has had an illustrious career as a professor of Chemistry and as a major figure in German industry. Since 1988 he has published several books of aphorisms, his latest being Aphonitionen: Aphoristische Definitionen (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2019). It contains about 7500 extremely concise statements that he calls “aphonitions” (a wordplay with aphorism and definition). About 275 or 3.7% are definitional aphorisms based on the wordplay with prov- erbs and proverbial expressions. Quite a few are innovative anti-proverbs that contain sociopolitical statements about modern existence. They are meant to entertain as well as educate without being didactic. Many of these “aphonitions” contain proverbial expressions from classical times and the Bible, while others refer to animals and body parts. Altogether these texts show that there exists a long tradition of the connection between literary aphorisms and folk expressions with the latter adding much metaphorical expressiveness.

This study is based on an empirical analysis of all ani- mal proverbs mentioned in the collection of Egyptian proverbs by Taymour. The analysis is both quantitative as well as qualitative. The total number of animal proverbs in the collection has reached a percentage of nearly 14% which indicates their importance. The analysis also categorises the animals according to their frequency. Another aim consists of analysing the portrayal of animals in the proverbs. The analysis lists the features given to the animals. Furthermore, the study tried to answer the question if a possible tie exists between the different kinds of animals and the positive or negative features given to them.

Animals often turn up in Monika Maron’s novels; they remind Maron’s restless characters of their own animal nature and put them in touch with their most genuine essence, providing thus a liberating feeling of happiness. This article examines the relationship between animals and men in Maron’s novels from the 80’s, wherein animal freedom offers a striking contrast with the repressive reality of the GDR. The hybrid creatures that the reader of these early novels encounters embody the desire of Maron’s female characters to overcome the opposition between human and animal. On the other side, characters who play a role in the repressive political system of the country are represented as people who fear animals and are anxious to maintain the distance between human and animal. This presents an interesting analogy to the reflections of those contemporary philosophers, like Giorgio Agamben, who pointed out the political dimension of the separation between human and animal and who argued at the same time in favor of bridging that gap.

This paper explores the literary representations of one of the most terrifying animals in the medieval imagination, the crocodile, in two monastic texts written in the German vernacular (Väterbuch, Alemannische Vitaspatrum). The literary figure of the crocodile in these religious texts combines ancient knowledge of crocodiles, biblical motifs, allegorical attributions and the lived experience of the Christian hermits, who encountered crocodiles as a part of their environment. Thus, crocodiles appear simultaneously as representations of divine power, as devilish beasts, as challenges to ascetic life in the desert, and as creatures miraculously tamed by the hermits' charisma. The ambiguous status of the desert as a space of temptation and redemption is thus reflected in literary representations of the crocodile, which in turn can be understood as a reflection on monastic life in general, intended for the medieval audience of the texts discussed.

Celem artykułu jest ukazanie specyfiki relacji człowiek/zwierzę w postapokaliptycznej przestrzeni w Le Monde enfin Jean-Pierre’a Andrevona, powieści stworzonej pod wpływem niektórych idei filozofii spekulatywnej i ekologii głębokiej. Artykuł zakłada zanalizowanie dwóch faz, które wpływają na kształtowanie się relacji między ludźmi i zwierzętami: upadku antropocentrycznego świata oraz początku nowego świata z prymarną rolą natury. Zwierzęta i rośliny rekolonizują Ziemię czyniąc ostatnich przedstawicieli rasy ludzkiej więźniami w tropikalnych labiryntach miast – dawnych symboli wielkości człowieka. W dalszej analizie zostają omówione zjawiska widoczne w drugiej fazie: inwersja pojęć człowiek – zwierzę oraz postawa „humanizmu bez ludzi”. Konkluzja dowodzi, iż powieść zaprasza do redefinicji granic człowieczeństwa i zwierzęcości, zaś jej struktura, przyjęta optyka narracyjna oraz dystrybucja ról aktancjalno-tematycznych uwypuklają koniec Antropocenu i początek nadrzędnej roli natury. The aim of this article is to present the characteristics of the human-animal relations in the post-apocalyptic world of Jean-Pierre Andrevon’s Le Monde enfin, a novel influenced by certain concepts derived from speculative philosophy and deep ecology. The article analyzes the two phases that impact the shaping of relationships between humans and animals: the fall of the anthropocentric world and the beginning of the new world, wherein the role of nature is primary. Animals and plants recolonize the Earth and trap the last members of the human race in the tropical mazes of cities – the ancient symbols of human greatness. Further analysis involves discussing the phenomena visible in the second phase: an inversion of the notions of “human” and “animal” and the attitude of “humanism without people”. The conclusion proves that the novel invites us to redefine the limits of “human” and “animal”. Its structure, the adopted narrative strategy and the distribution of actantial and thematic roles highlight the end of human domination, as well as the beginning of the supreme role of nature.

La cuestión del límite y la diferencia entre el hombre y el animal se ha convertido en una cuestión filosófica de especial relevancia. Baste reparar en sus implicaciones políticas, sociales, económicas, etc. Por primera vez el hombre puede dirigir su proceso evolutivo. Desde ese contexto, se analizan y discuten los argumentos heideggerianos sobre el tema, tomando como hilo conductor su lectura derridiana. En ella se pone de manifiesto la contradicción entre la necesidad temática y operatoria de un límite (entre el animal y el Dasein en relación a la muerte) y la imposibilidad de fundamentarlo.

The article is focused on the issues relating to a legal situation of an animal as a victim of a criminal offense. Currently, according to the rules of criminal procedure, an animal, as an entity, cannot be legally recognised a victim, which significantly lowers efficiency with which its interests can be protected. There are strong moral and pragmatic reasons to grant animals the status of a non-personal carrier of legal rights. Legal personality of animals as victims during a criminal trial should be of only passive nature, allowing recognition of legally-protected interests of the animal.

If we were asked to draw a graph to represent the distribution of consciousness in the world around us (from dolphins to honeybees) based on objective criteria, we would definitely be in trouble. The two objective parameters that have been traditionally considered as a guide – the complexity of behavior and brain size – lead to paradoxical conclusions and turn out to be unsatisfactory, to say the least. We need to find novel, reliable metrics. However, these can be identified, validated and calibrated only if we first tackle seriously the problem of recognizing consciousness in our fellow humans, a task which is far from being obvious.

This article aims to take under consideration the relationship between identity and political obedience. First, it explains the famous encouragement of De la Boétie: it is sufficient to decide to quit serving to be instantly free. Nevertheless, man often renounces his freedom in favor of obeying authority. Why does it happen? At the bottom of this surrender there is an “animal” factor: as Alexandre Kojève has shown, in the master-slave dialectic the first is able to dominate the animal within himself, while the servant has not the same capability and doesn’t want to accept the risk of death. Finally, it is with respect to the latter that everyone decides for himself, which opens the possibility for a full and actual identity through the appropriation of his own mortality.

The article aims at showing that referring to philosophy of Martin Heidegger as „non-naturalistic” is inaccurate, because it attempts to describe Heidegger’s thought in terms, which Heidegger has redefined or rejected. In the article I argue that Heidegger did not belittle the problem of body, life and animality, and that his discussion of these issues should be seen in the context of his critique of the ontic perspective and the assumption of the unity of being.

The article analyses psychology of magic and religion. The ritual behavior of both animals and men is investigated.

Adamawa-Ubangi language spoken in southwestern Chad and north-eastern Cameroon, the tupuri has many speakers. They have a special relationship with animals, including livestock that does most of the dowry in countries tupuri. In this paper, we describe the representations through the relationship of man with the pet, the woman with the beef, the perception of the dog, guardian of the family compound, the boundaries between man and domestic animal, human and wild animal, and wild animal as a spirit protector, witchcraft and second sight.

Cet article interroge le rôle de la symbolique animale dans la construction des identités collectives à travers l’exemple des figures de l’élan et du bison. L’argumentation s’appuie sur la comparaison de six monuments érigés de 1862 à 1961 en Allemagne, en Pologne et dans l’actuelle enclave de Kaliningrad (ex-Prusse orientale). L’analyse des sculptures, systématiquement replacée dans son contexte historique, permet d’éclairer par l’histoire politique et culturelle des trois pays leurs points communs et leurs différences. En définitive, on montre la grande variabilité des identités incarnées par les monuments au cours de leur histoire. Même fixée dans une forme physique stable, la représentation animale reste toujours polysémique.

The starting point for consideration is to put the Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy into question whether the status of “absolute Otherness” may also belong to the Other other than man. On the basis of the thought of Levinas it receives a negative responseand it is because of his involvement in the so-called anthropological machine (which he shares with Martin Heidegger and some other critics of metaphysics). But it is, however, possible to open the (broadly defined) phenomenological ethical thought drew on the achievements of Levinas to the question of the animal. This attempt might be centered around the proposals of Jacques Derrida, the author of the essay The Animal That Therefore I Am (More To Follow), where he spoke about the singularity of each animal, the problematic status of border between man and animal,and the being-with animals as a full-fledged modality of being. This is a provocative thought which asks us about our attitude to such issues as “responsibility” and “responsiveness”, “carno-phallogocentrism”, or the status of non-human animals. Derrida’s thought is here very close to some kind of phenomenological language, but it is rather the phenomenology of the otherness than the phenomenology of intentional subject. The same phenomenology that we find in Bernhard Waldenfels’s or John D. Caputo’s writing.

In this paper, inspired by the Predrag Krstić's book Philosophical Animal author is trying to find hers way through a broad and complex web of philosophies and roles that different animals play in them. The main question is how to understand philosophy itself in a present day context, which philosophy is supposed to think and rethink through. Animals as presented in concepts, more precisely philosophical contexts, open one interesting and innovative way to deal with this question, balancing between tradition of philosophy and its presence, structure of philosophical arguments and questioning of language of philosophy, abstract and individual. In this frame philosopher as the true philosophical animal is revealed as the main symbol that requires analysis in his philosophical strategies.

(francuski) Avant de qualifier la théorie du 'radical' de Rosenzweig de messianisme, il me semble important de localiser le 'registre du sacrifice' dans ce système de connaissance. Du reste, c'est la première innovation de Rosenzweig par rapport ŕ la tradition. Rosenzweig n'a ni essayé ni eu le temps de thématiser en détail la figure du 'sacrifice' ou du korban comme le nom le plus générique d'une telle activité. Tout ce que nous possédons se résume ŕ quelques fragments répartis sur plusieurs années de correspondance avec ses amis, auxquels Rosenzweig enseigne la pensée du sacrifice et ses limites, et ŕ quelques-unes de ses notes sur la difficulté de traduire et d'effacer le mot allemand Opfer. Cependant, depuis le tout début, lorsqu'il 'traduit' et 'pense' le sacrifice comme 'don' ou 'offrande', son effort est tout ŕ fait transparent: Rosenzweig ne fait qu'interroger le rapprochement de Dieu ou d'Autrui.

The author is here seeking to expose his book Philosophical Animal zoographical persuasion to philosophy, to his own remorseless analysis - and that way defend the book from potential criticism by the others. On the other hand, the author believes that this will open up the space for discussion about the book and themes that book provokes. This discussion is not going to be mere neatly registered response and/or appropriate praise but a contribution inspired by the book, resonating back to it.

The main cause of Schmitt’s and Kojève’s friendship, and consequently, their correspondence, lies in their common affinity for philosophy of Hegel. When they began corresponding in 1955, Schmitt was something of an academic pariah; in 1933, the legal scholar had joined the Nazi Party, publicly declared his anti-Semitism, was later interrogated (but not charged) at Nuremberg, and retired from his post at the University of Berlin in 1946. After his famous lectures on Hegel’s Phenomenology ended in 1939, Kojève joined the Resistance. At the end of the World II War, he wound up in the French ministry of economic affairs, where he worked until his death in 1968. This text is written on the margins of two letters, one written on 14.XII.1955. by Schmitt and the other, Kojève’s answer, dated on 4.I.1956. The subject of those two letters is the interpretation of the enemy in philosophy of Hegel. .

À partir de l’exemple de la cité cilicienne Aigéai, l'importance culturelle et historique des animaux comme parasema (signe héraldique) communaux et donc comme support de l'identité culturelle d’une ancienne cité est thématisée. Ainsi le rôle de la chèvre dans la fondation de la cité, la religion locale et d’autres contextes sociaux est montré. Un appendice enquête le mythe fondateur d’un stratagème d’Alexandre le Grand avec des chèvres afin de trouver des raisons historiques, mythologiques où d’autres pour la vénération des chèvres.

Depuis l’entrée en vigueur du Traité de Lisbonne, la protection du « bien-être des animaux en tant qu’êtres sensibles » fait l’objet d’une clause horizontale inscrite dans le corps même du droit conventionnel. Elle bénéficie ainsi du même rang dans l’ordonnancement juridique européen que les dispositions relatives à la protection des droits de l’homme et au bien-être des peuples de l’Union. Les rapports homme-animal ne sont par conséquent plus régis par une hiérarchie figée des sources juridiques. Ces rapports sont, au contraire, le résultat d’une pesée d’intérêts au cas par cas qui dépasse le seul cadre juridique. Une telle mise en balance exige en effet la prise en compte concrète de considérations éthiques pour accompagner les évolutions technologiques et sociétales. L’étude de droit comparé sur laquelle se fonde la présente contribution a pour but de participer au débat sur les nouvelles tendances de la protection juridique des animaux en Europe.

La longue histoire de la disparition du castor (Castor fiber) de l’Europe, et de son retour récent, invite à porter un regard original sur les rapports changeants entre l’homme et les sociétés d’un côté, et l’animal et le reste de la nature de l’autre. L’analyse de la protection de cet animal singulier, initiée au XIXe siècle par une mutation du paradigme utilitariste, particulièrement chez les naturalistes, et de sa reconquête de nombreux espaces d’où l’homme l’avait fait disparaitre, met en évidence une dynamique européenne, globale malgré certaines différences. Le cas du castor permet en outre d’appréhender la capacité du sauvage à s’adapter à l’anthropisation du monde.

À partir d’une étude des propriétés sociales des groupes impliqués et d’une analyse de leurs productions symboliques respectives, on se propose avec cette contribution de revenir sur la mobilisation antivivisectionniste et sur les controverses élaborées autour de la vivisection et de l’expérimentation animale dans la France des années 1880. On essaiera de montrer que la rencontre entre un état donné de développement des sciences biologiques, marquées par une autonomisation croissante sous l’effet notamment des travaux pastoriens, et un collectif hétérogène d’agents opposés à la scientifisation des espaces sociaux dans lesquels ils s’inscrivent, est déterminante du devenir du projet antivivisectionniste.

Dans le contexte du « conflit sarrois » (1945-1956), partisans et adversaires du détachement de la Sarre se livrèrent à une bataille d’images où la caricature devint une arme. Sous la plume des dessinateurs de presse allemands et sarrois opposés à l’union économique du territoire à la France, l’animalisation fut ainsi mise au service de la dévalorisation de l’ennemi politique : la France, et en premier lieu son représentant à Sarrebruck Gilbert Grandval, et le Ministerpräsident sarrois Johannes Hoffmann. Les caricaturistes allemands et sarrois eurent également recours à l’animalisation pour symboliser les habitants de la Sarre. Pour comprendre les raisons de la récurrence de cette représentation, il convient d’analyser le dispositif à l’œuvre dans la caricature animale. À travers l’exemple sarrois, il s’agit ainsi d’étudier les enjeux de l’utilisation de la métaphore animalière dans l’image satirique.

L’œuvre littéraire de l’auteure autrichienne Ilse Aichinger (1921- ) met en scène des figures animales multiples et particulièrement variées. Cet article interroge les fonctions de la représentation des animaux en cherchant à déterminer dans quelle mesure ceux-ci deviennent un miroir critique ou un modèle pour la société humaine autrichienne après 1945 dans le texte littéraire, et ce par trois aspects : la relation au passé, le rapport au savoir et les relations sociales.

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