Apuntes para un post-especismo: más allá (ya no) hay monstruos

Resumen

ABSTRACT. NOTES FOR A POST-SPECIESISM: BEYOND (NO LONGER) THERE ARE MONSTERS

   

In this article we will review the discussion concerning the limits between nature and culture according to the notion of speciesism and anthropocentric speciesism. As a new element, we propose that the idea of “post-speciesism” is useful from an ethological perspective. On the one hand, we look into the framework in which the critique of the instrumental relationship with the nonhuman world arises: the global impact of anthropocentrism in the biosphere (Anthropocene) that leads to an overdetermination of culture over non-human culture. This suggests a question: Is it possible to think, for certain biological structures, that there is no longer a world outside the cultural instrumentation to refer / incorporate them? On the other hand, we will consider the classical objection that this instrumentalization may have an evolutionary biological basis, following the idea of autopoiesis. From this standpoint we will argue that our culture has elaborated symbolic-cultural regulations against instrumentalization once reached its last totalizing stage over all living beings. Finally, we will realize that this new notion of post-speciesism makes possible to understand that the network of human / non-human relationships is much more complex and involves factors not always considered in the traditional philosophical and ethological theories.

KEY WORDS. Ethology, speciesism, autopoiesis, nature, culture, human/nonhuman, anthropocentrism.