have you ever seen an animal “seeing” you, naked or not?
TRANSCRIPT
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Have you ever seen an animal “seeing” you, naked or not?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Here, and for the next 1/2 page, Derrida sets up a view that he is going to reject
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
The conversation about whether a cat (as a group) or human (as a group) can be “naked” or know they are “naked” is a view Derrida is setting up, in order to challenge it.
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
To be “like” an animal requires some coherent, universal ontology of what “animal” is, or what “man” is. A “real cat” is not understood through a general term, but in particularity.
Brianne Donaldson UCI
***end of set up; and start of Derrida’s alternative
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
“this cat” is radically different from all other figurative cats, linguistic “cats” and all other real cats.
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
“Unsubstitutable singularity” is the heart of Derrida’s theory of differánce
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q2 In you own words, explain what “an existence that refuses to be conceptualized” means
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q1 If *this* cat is always unique from others, and always changing itself from moment to moment, just *Who* is it?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q3 In what way, when we use words, are we always chasing (or following) after a meaning we can never catch?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
What does a cat (or “neighbor,” or “other”) see when it looks at you? Who or what or how are *you* to the cat?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q4 What is lost or gained when we use a term “animal” to stand in for such an immense array of life forms?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q5 In what ways is naming the “animal” a way for the “human” to define itself (auto-biography or auto-defintion)?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
“Dasein” is a German word for “Being”
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Derrida sees signifying “the animal” as a singular group as a somewhat unique feature produced by particular forms of knowledge in zoology, biology, genetics, industrial technology, etc. of the last 200 years.
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
And even if we debate the timeline, we cannot deny the immense “subjection of the animal.”
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
D. argues that the production of “the animal” (singular) has led to global, publicly-sanctioned violence that humans want to turn away from.
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q6 Given D’s view so far, why might pursuing rights for “the animal” (of animal rights) create more problems than it solves?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
D. references Bentham’s utility view here, and related persistent attempts to draw “lines” —such as language, burying the dead, etc.—between what is “human” or “animal”
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Even if you don’t understand what D. writes here, does it make you feel or intuit anything?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Je pense donc je suis: “I think therefore I am” (Descartes)
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q7 What is the “war” D. is referring to? Why does the stare of a cat upon us awaken us to the need for new thinking?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
As Calarco points out, D. here affirms an “abyss” between humans (“I-we”) and what we *call* animals. Even after eroding the meaning of these two terms (human/animal) as groups, D. still perceives (though does not explain) some value in preserving this distinction. Could it be strategic, or . . .?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
But the abyss is not an “interesting” point, he claims. “Everybody knows it already!” D. says. What IS interesting is seeing the abyssal difference in everything, extending difference everywhere!
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
How do we trade “the Animal” for “a heterogeneous multiplicity of the living” that can’t be captured in a single term?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q8 Every time we say “I” or “Animal”, as if that is “true,” D. says, we are asinine (basically, an ass!), and worse, saying it reaffirms the falseness; we perpetuate the war against animals (and thought). Q: so how can we stop this war?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q9 How does naming “the Animal” perpetuate logocentrism and associated violent exclusion?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q10 The heart of D.’s critique against logocentrism; Q. Can beings ever “respond” (or be perceived in their response) so long as they are considered “the Animal”?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q11: If “the Animal” defines the human, how might our understanding of “humanity” have to change if we dispense with “the Animal”?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q12 Do you think “willful ignorance” is too strong an accusation against those who treat all beings as one group: “Animal”?Is the singular term “a crime”?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q13 Can getting rid of the name “the Animal” offer something more than just a loss (or “privation”)?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q14 Even before we can utter a discursive “I” or “the Animal”, a living being is an activity of self-organizationand novelty; how can we find language that is adequate to that?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q15 Can turning nouns to verbs like “autobiograp-araphing” capture difference (or differencing)?
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
The cat points out the inadequacy of our thinking about “the Animal”; but a mirror would confront us similarly with the inadequacy our thinking about the “I” present to experience
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Brianne Donaldson UCI
Q: Who are “you”?
Brianne Donaldson UCI