Podstawowe pojęcia studiów nad zwierzętami
The Basic Concepts of Animal Studies
Contributor(s): Dorota Łagodzka (Editor), Dariusz Gzyra (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Sociology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: animal studies; concepts; subjectivity; representation; relationships; body; harm
Summary/Abstract: The monograph contains articles on selected concepts of animal studies: subjectivity, experience, relationships, representation, body and harm. The authors, who specialize in studying the relationships and interactions of humans and other animals, represent various scientific disciplines and universities. The diversity in research perspectives makes this book unique in Polish scientific literature and allows for using it as an academic textbook. The critical perspective clearly present in it results from the conviction that good science is not only methodologically sound, but also has the ambition to contribute to the improvement in the situation of all sentient beings.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-7045-5
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-7043-1
- Page Count: 220
- Publication Year: 2025
- Language: Polish
Wstęp. Podstawowe pojęcia studiów nad zwierzętami
Wstęp. Podstawowe pojęcia studiów nad zwierzętami
(Introduction. The Basic Concepts of Animal Studies)
- Author(s):Dariusz Gzyra, Dorota Łagodzka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:7-9
- No. of Pages:3
- Keywords:antropozoologia; zwierzęta; relacje; podmiotowość; krzywda; interdyscyplinarność
- Summary/Abstract:The text is an introduction to an academic book that resulted from a series of interdisciplinary symposia titled "Animal Studies for Advanced Researchers" organized at the University of Warsaw. The publication focuses on the analysis of human-animal relationships through the lens of six key concepts: agency, experience, relations, representation, body, and harm. It is the first multi-perspective study of its kind in Poland, aiming to organize the terminology and inspire further development of domestic animal studies.
- Price: 0.50 €
Jaka podmiotowość, czyja i po co?
Jaka podmiotowość, czyja i po co?
(Subjectivity: What, Whose and Why?)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Skonieczny
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History of Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:13-25
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:subjectivity; subject; animal; attribution; ethics
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter analyses the problem of animal subjectivity in a number of philosophical theories. It starts by describing the Cartesian understanding of the subject, paradigmatic for Modernity, which is rational, active, self-sufficient and closed – as well as human and not animal. Next, it shows how this vision of the subject was put into question in the 19th and 20th centuries by the advent of evolutionary science and a new historical understanding of the human. It then shows how those criticisms influence our understanding of the relationship between the human and the animal, pointing to the possibility of attributing subjectivity to the animal. The chapter ends with a discussion of the idea that it is perhaps indeed the act of attribution that is the most important for our understanding of human and animal subjectivity.
- Price: 1.50 €
Podmiot nieantropocentryczny w kosmologiach indygennych
Podmiot nieantropocentryczny w kosmologiach indygennych
(The Nonanthropocentric Subject in Indigenous Cosmologies)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Poks
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Non-European Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:26-36
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:subjectivity; subject; indigenous cosmologies; Indian perspectivism; relationality
- Summary/Abstract:This article reflects on the concept of the subject from Indigenous perspectives, arguing for the recognition of relational ontologies inherent in traditional knowledges as potentially a game changer in the legal protection of the rights of animals and the whole planet. Indigenous peoples tend to view agency as intrinsic to all of reality: since all that is, can potentially assume the position of the subject in relations with humans, the common condition for humans and nonhumans is not biological animality but humanity understood as a condition of original undifferentiation. In the kincentric ontologies of numerous Indigenous communities, animals have the status of First People; they are co-creators of the word, teachers, and guides of fledgling humans. The opening of the Western world to Indigenous cosmologies would lead to questioning of the anthropocentrism on which our legal systems are built; this, in turn, would conceivably result in the construction of an alternative animal subjectivity much more conducive to interspecies justice. In the eyes of the law thus revised, an animal would be a nonanthropocentric, even though still largely anthropomorphic, person.
- Price: 1.50 €
Doświadczenie zwierzęcia jako kwestia dociekania i praktyki
Doświadczenie zwierzęcia jako kwestia dociekania i praktyki
(Animal Experience as a Matter of Inquiry and Practice)
- Author(s):Justyna Schollenberger
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Epistemology, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:39-54
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:experience; language; meeting; animals; anthropomorphism
- Summary/Abstract:The question of experience as it relates to non-human animals can be approached in three ways. First, we can ask about the specificity of animal experience. Second, we can ask about the possibility of experiencing our animality in certain situations happening to humans. Third, we can ask about the experience of relationships with animals. The article presents a perspective within which the question of animal experience is close to anthropological inquiries on the possibility of understanding the perspective of the other. In this view, epistemological problems are inextricably linked to ethics. Even if we recognize that we are unable to grasp the perspective of an animal other, efforts to learn about it appear to be a starting point for building attentive, empathetic interspecies relationships.
- Price: 1.50 €
Doświadczenie jako kategoria międzygatunkowa
Doświadczenie jako kategoria międzygatunkowa
(Experience as an Interspecies Category)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Roeske
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Epistemology, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:55-71
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:experience; interspecies experience; non-human experience; philosophy of mind; animal studies
- Summary/Abstract:This chapter attempts to conceptualize experience as a multispecies phenomenon that transcends the boundaries of human perception and language. The author analyzes the notion of experience through the lenses of philosophy, ethology, and the social sciences, highlighting its semantic complexity and its interrelation with categories such as consciousness, sensation, and language. Differentiating between lived experience and cognitive acts, the author outlines various forms of experience – from phenomenal to experimental – and their relevance to human-animal relations. She questions the possibility of interspecies translation of experience, challenging the discursive dominance of the human viewpoint. The chapter also addresses the methodological potential and limitations of studying nonhuman experience, advocating for the integration of humanities and life sciences. It offers a contribution to debates on the moral and epistemological status of animals, calling for a redefinition of subjectivity and moral community in the spirit of posthumanism.
- Price: 1.50 €
Relacje. W kierunku roboczej definicji przezroczystego terminu
Relacje. W kierunku roboczej definicji przezroczystego terminu
(Relations: Towards a Working Definition of a Transparent Term)
- Author(s):Justyna Włodarczyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Epistemology
- Page Range:75-85
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:relations; relationality; human-animal relations; animal studies
- Summary/Abstract:This article investigates the concept of 'relations' as a central yet undertheorized term within human-animal studies. Despite its frequent appearance in titles and keywords of key publications, 'relations' often lacks a precise definition and is used intuitively or in opposition to other terms such as 'interactions' or 'relationships'. Drawing inspiration from Marilyn Strathern’s 'Relations: An Anthropological Account', the article undertakes a contextual and structuralist analysis of the term’s usage in animal studies, highlighting its semantic opacity and methodological implications. It distinguishes 'relations' from related concepts, emphasizing its broader, often symbolic and structural dimension, which allows for the theorization of interspecies dynamics beyond individual encounters. The article also reflects on the linguistic challenges of translating “relations” into Polish and explores the implications of framing human-animal connections through relational rather than interactional or affective lenses. The article advocates for a more precise, critical engagement with the term 'relations' to clarify its role in shaping the epistemological foundations of animal studies.
- Price: 1.50 €
Miejsce relacji i relacyjności w teoriach wspólnoty międzygatunkowej
Miejsce relacji i relacyjności w teoriach wspólnoty międzygatunkowej
(The Role of Relations and Relationality in Theories of Interspecies Community)
- Author(s):Gabriela Jarzębowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy
- Page Range:86-96
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:relationships; relationality; interspecies community; relational ethics; politics; animal rights
- Summary/Abstract:This chapter examines the role of relations and relationality in theories of interspecies community. It focuses on approaches situated within relational animal ethics and the so-called political turn in animal studies. I map the key positions that seek to define the foundations of an expanded community including both humans and nonhumans, with particular attention to the tension between relationality and politicality, as well as their links to animal rights and interspecies justice. While often invoked together, these concepts can also diverge, shaping contrasting visions of community. I discuss feminist care ethics, environmental relational ethics, and contextual ethics (Clare Palmer) alongside political theories such as Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach and, centrally, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka’s 'Zoopolis'. I argue that the originality of 'Zoopolis' lies less in its novelty than in its synthesis of earlier currents, its precision in differentiating types of interspecies relations, and its explicit embedding in political theory. Comparing relational and political frameworks reveals unresolved tensions: between rights and responsibility, particularity and universality, and individual versus systemic relations. Ultimately, the chapter highlights the stakes of defining whether interspecies community should rest on relational proximity and dependence, or on universal principles of justice that bracket relational differences.
- Price: 1.50 €
Mówienie w imieniu a mówienie o
Mówienie w imieniu a mówienie o
(Representation: Speaking for and Speaking of)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Poks
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy
- Page Range:99-113
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:representation; good/bad representation; ideology; unstable representation; epistemological violence; colonisation
- Summary/Abstract:The article ponders the question of animal representation in cultural as well as legal/political discourses, tracing the entanglements of both in mechanisms of power. Regarding convictions as mental representations of reality, the author considers the role of representing subject’s point of view and moral judgment for the adequacy of representation, highlighting the indissoluble tangle of ethics and esthetics, the latter understood as the work of imagination. The argument points to the necessity of forging new models of ontological and ethical human-animal relations, which would be capable of questioning the ontological-axiological interspecies boundaries of species. As concerns the idea of 'speaking for' animals, the article credits the political turn in Animal Studies and the constructivist turn in political theory with the potential for loosening the excessively anthropocentric legal-political discourses. Faced with the ethical dilemma whether to represent selectively in the name of justice for nonhuman animals (colonization), or become silent and, by renouncing the epistemic violence inscribed in representing the nonhuman other who cannot speak for him- or herself, silently condone the very violence one disapproves of, the author concludes that the always already false representation (as a construct of the representing subject) acquires the characteristics of moral imperative.
- Price: 1.50 €
Filmowe reprezentacje zwierząt
Filmowe reprezentacje zwierząt
(The Film Representations of Animals)
- Author(s):Michał Matuszewski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:114-132
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:film representations of animals; anthropomorphisation; Disneyfication; ethics of representation; nature film
- Summary/Abstract:This article offers a comprehensive analysis of animal representations in audiovisual culture, focusing on their ethical, aesthetic, and ideological dimensions. It examines various representational strategies - from anthropomorphism and popular culture conventions, through documentary aesthetics, to the symbolic use of animals as metaphors and figures. The text also explores the connections between cinematic practices and historical forms of displaying animals to the public. Special attention is given to the material and technological dimensions of the film medium and their impact on representation. The article concludes with a reflection on the possibility of creating images that do not objectify animals but allow their presence beyond the logic of exploitation. It positions cinema as an important tool for critical animal studies and investigates how visual representations shape human relationships with other species.
- Price: 1.50 €
Odległe i bliskie ciało zwierzęcia
Odległe i bliskie ciało zwierzęcia
(The Close and Distant Animal Body)
- Author(s):Krzysztof Skonieczny
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):History of Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
- Page Range:135-146
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:body; animal; flesh; phenomenology; ethics
- Summary/Abstract:The chapter analyses the problem of the animal body from the philosophical perspective, focusing on the ambiguity stemming from the fact that it is difficult to grasp and familiar at the same time. In introductory remarks, the Author traces the neglect of the body (human and animal alike) in the history of philosophy. The chapter then uses Giorgio Agamben to point to the difficulty of distinguishing between the animal body and the animal itself (which, in philosophical discourses from Aristotle to Emmanuel Levinas, has been coded as being “pure body” without reason, soul or face). In contrast to this difficulty, the final parts of the chapter are devoted to a number of philosophical texts which help to understand the body as a locus of proximity between humans and animals. These include ethics-focused interventions of utilitarians and Christine Korsgaard, phenomenology-inspired theories of Ralph Acampora, and texts by Val Plumwood and Jolanta Brach-Czaina, problematising the question of meat.
- Price: 1.50 €
Namacalna obecność zwierzęcego ciała w kulturze
Namacalna obecność zwierzęcego ciała w kulturze
(The Tangible Presence of Animal Body in Culture)
- Author(s):Dorota Łagodzka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Visual Arts, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics
- Page Range:147-176
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:body; animal body; objectification; animals in art; animal studies
- Summary/Abstract:The text is divided into two parts. The first part provides a brief introduction to the concept of the body, addressing it as a source of experience and a tool of communication, the symbolic value of the dead body, the animal body in feminist theory, and the animal body in cultural practices. The second part of the text discusses visual arts as a tool for using the body and thinking about the body. Using artworks as examples, the body as a utilitarian object, the body in the context of meat, the suffering body, the body as a trophy, the body in the service of science in natural history museums, the medicalization of the body, and the corporeal community of humans and other animals are discussed. Selected works of art serve as examples of possible ways of engaging in discourse on the body and of displaying, transforming, and using the bodies of nonhuman animals. The art presented comments on, questions, or contests the objectification of living and dead animal bodies within popular and ethically significant cultural practices.
- Price: 2.50 €
Wymiary krzywdy
Wymiary krzywdy
(The Dimensions of Harm)
- Author(s):Dariusz Gzyra
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Social Philosophy
- Page Range:179-198
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:harm; sentientism; ethical extensionism; social norm
- Summary/Abstract:The article examines the multifaceted phenomenon of harm, considered both as an individual experience rooted in sentience and as a social construct. The discussion is structured in three sections: the status of the harmed (which beings are capable of being harmed), the harm itself (what constitutes and is perceived as harm), and the harmer (who inflicts harm and who is regarded as responsible). Drawing on insights from the political turn in animal studies, the article emphasizes the necessity of a broad conceptualization of harm. It highlights the possibility of harm caused by omission and explores both subjective and objectified dimensions of harm, with particular attention to ethical extensionism as a strategy for granting moral status. The analysis also addresses the problem of unexperienced harm, including the taking of life, as well as societal responses to the harm of nonhuman sentients (such as pro-animal abolitionism), supported by relevant statistical data.
- Price: 1.50 €
Krzywda w perspektywie reprezentacji
Krzywda w perspektywie reprezentacji
(Harm in the Perspective of Representation)
- Author(s):Anita Jarzyna
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:199-215
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:harm; suffering; speciesism; animal rights; discourse; Holocaust
- Summary/Abstract:This article is devoted to conceptualizations of the category of harm in narratives and other cultural representations of animals. The author proposes to treat harm as one of the key, and even founding concepts of animal studies, which has marked the directions of reflection and is related to the issue of the problematization of the anthropological boundary, and anthropomorphization, or agency, among others. The varieties and transformations of harm narratives considered in the article include comparisons or analogies with the fate of humans, especially references to the Holocaust – initially regarded as controversial, and over time, as increasingly inadequate – as well as forms of relativization of violence and manipulation of it. At the same time, the author draws attention to the risks associated with focusing on harm, which may result in secondary victimization of animals, manifested in variants of instrumentalizing abuse. The point of arrival of the article is the question of the need to develop categories complementary to harm, including vulnerability.
- Price: 1.50 €
Noty o autorkach i autorach
Noty o autorkach i autorach
(Notes on the Contributors)
- Author(s):Dariusz Gzyra, Dorota Łagodzka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):General Reference Works
- Page Range:217-219
- No. of Pages:3
- Price: 0.50 €
