Man has created death. A Few Reflections on Animals, Humans, and Mortality

The essay approaches the problem of a possible differentiation between the death of the animal and that of the human being. Stepping beyond the Cartesian sharp dichotomy of the human and animal life, we follow the line of such philosophers as Montaigne, Spinoza, and Hume, who were radically critical towards the unwarranted claims of anthropocentric phantasies. Interpreting poetic texts of Emily Dickinson and Ted Hughes we demonstrate that reflecting upon animality we can get a new insight into the place and meaning of death in our lives as well as into foundations of our speech.

Aesthetics · Animal life · Anthropocentrism · Art · Biology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Poetry · Psychoanalysis · Zoology · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy · Psychology