Animals, Empathy, and Anthropomorphism

"In this bracing book Salzani assays the prime methods ushered in by the affective turn in animal ethics, namely imagination and empathy, and sets their appropriate scope. He also makes a significant contribution here to the long-lasting discussion in animal studies on anthropomorphism. Using philosophic theory and literature as touchstones, the book brings home the enabling yet finite preconditions of thinking and feeling animality in ontology and ethics."

━Ralph Acampora, Professor of Philosophy, Hofstra University, USA

This open access book explores the role of imagination in animal ethics and its constitutive links to empathy/sympathy and anthropomorphism. The book argues for the constitutive role of imagination in ethical deliberation, but acknowledges that there exist important limits to its use. However, “limit” is here understood not merely negatively as restriction and insufficiency, but rather positively as “condition of possibility,” so what the book explores and analyses are the conditions for a positive and fruitful use of the imagination in ethics. The book uses as a “frame” the questions and issues raised in J.M. Coetzee’s The Lives of Animals to explore some central and salient themes.

Carlo Salzani is a research fellow at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.