„Sympathy beyond the confines of man…”. Karol Darwin wobec zwierzęco-ludzkich praktyk codzienności
“Sympathy beyond the confines of man…”. Charles Darwin and Animal-Human Practices of Everyday Life

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the problem of representation of animal-human relations in the works of Charles Darwin. In his Descent of Man he presented the history of moral development as a peculiar history of the development of sympathy. According to Darwin, this sentiment may reach its highest form only when it includes also compassion towards animals. Man as such is obliged to establish moral relations with others, also with non-humans, “lower animals”, as Darwin puts it. The narration of The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals seems particularly interesting in this context; especially the examples of canine behavior based on Darwin’s own everyday observations. Scientific theory is grounded here on the personal experience of human-dog relations. The question of the theoretical status of such “anecdotes” can lead us to contemporary animal studies. There one can find a similar emphasis on “mundane” – as Donna Haraway puts it – everyday life practices and interspecies encounters.

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