Anthropomorphism as a resilient way of reflecting on animals. A workshop with Chiara Pasqualin

Theorists of animal ethics have often argued that anthropomorphism is a flawed way of thinking about animals. Recently, however, philosophers and ethologists have pointed out that, far from being a mistake in itself, anthropomorphism can be a positive heuristic tool for accessing the realm of animals. The fact that this notion has been subject both to criticism and to positive re-evaluation can be interpreted as a sign of the ambivalence of anthropomorphism. A similar ambivalence can also be found in Martin Heidegger’s conception of anthropomorphism. Here the emphasis is put not on the psychological and evolutionary basis of anthropomorphism, but on its cultural-historical roots. In Heidegger’s view, anthropomorphism belongs to the history of metaphysics and shares the same problematic theoretical premises. In fact, a more radical understanding of anthropomorphism brings us back to the basic question of who we are as human beings and how we should understand and treat animals.

Speaker:

CHIARA PASQUALIN | University of Genova

The event will be held in English and is part of the activities of the research project IPN 175: “Resilient Beliefs: Religion and Beyond”, funded by the Euregio Science Fund.

The event will be in-person in the FBK Aula Piccola while seats last and online.

Registration by June 12, 2023 at 12:00 a.m.

Chiara Pasqualin studied Philosophy at the University of Padua and at the Galileian School of Higher Education. In 2013, she obtained her PhD in Philosophy by discussing a thesis under a joint supervision of the University of Padua and the University of Innsbruck. From 2014 to 2016, she was granted a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Philosophy at the Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil). Between 2016 and 2020 she was appointed as post-doctoral researcher (Habilitation candidate) in the Institut für Philosophie at the University of Koblenz-Landau. She is currently a researcher in the Department of Antiquity, Philosophy and History at the University of Genoa, where she carries out a project on the theories and applications of the concept of “animal welfare”. She is the author of the book “Il fondamento “patico” dell’ermeneutico: affettività, pensiero e linguaggio nell’opera di Heidegger” (2015) and of a number of essays and articles in international journals and volumes.