Content area

Full Text

Headnote

Abstract: This essay explores the reality of other-than-human friendship in the context of Dominique Lestel's transdisciplinary philosophy. In response to proponents of human exceptionalism who are often hostile to the very idea of other-than-human friendship, Lestel compellingly demonstrates that millions of people around the world reap the benefits of authentic trans-species relationships that both transform and define us. In the hybrid societies in which we foster privileged relationships with other animals, other-than-human friendship can only be discounted on the basis of convoluted abstractions or bizarre mental gymnastics. The strength of these bonds is so intense and real that a part of us dies when our companion animals pass away. There is nothing primitive or robotic about the manner in which we share all of the ecstasy and anguish that life has to afford with our pets. Instead, it is our primitive thinking about animality that needs to evolve in Western civilization.

I. Introduction

Although the expression "out of the mouth of babes" is often overused to the point of being trite, this reflection about the reality of other-thanhuman friendship was inspired by an insightful lamentation from my six-year-old daughter in addition to the transdisciplinary philosopher Dominique Lestel's theories linked to the universal phenomenon of a shared life. Prior to the passing of our faithful canine companion and friend of thirteen years, she exclaimed "But, she is family!" when she realized that our dog would soon succumb to her terminal condition. Rejecting the sharp ontological gap between Homo sapiens and other animals and recognizing that our dog Chloe was a full-fledged member of our family, our daughter did not fall prey to one of the greatest and most symptomatic asininities53 of those who call themselves humans (Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I am 41). In stark contrast to much of mainstream western philosophy, which is replete with soundly disproven concepts such as the notorious betemachine theory and the unfounded notion that other species cannot communicate anything significant at all, our daughters expression of deep sorrow is emblematic of the strong affective ties that bind us to the human and other-than-human members of what Lestel refers to as hybrid societies or mixed communities (Batra 156).

In response to the staunch defenders ofanthropocentric philosophical paradigms that undermine...

Show less