THINKING ABOUT NONHUMAN ANIMALS IS THINKING (PERHAPS BETTER) ABOUT HUMAN ANIMALS

Jenny Diski, What I Don't Know About Animals, (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2011).

Raimond Gaita, The Philosopher's Dog: Friendship with Animals (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2005).

Diana Reiss, The Dolphin in the Mirror: Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphins Lives (Boston & New York Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011).

Kathy Rudy, Loving Animals: Toward a New Animal Advocacy (Minneapolis & London: U. of Minnesota Press, 2011).

Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 1990) ("Where do we start to resolve the dichotomy of the civilized and the wild?" "Do you really believe you are an animal? We are now taught this in school. It is a wonderful piece of information: I have been enjoying it all my life and I come back to it over and over again, as something to investigate and test. I grew up on a small farm with cows and chickens, and with a second-growth forest right at the back fence, so I had the good fortune of seeing the human and animal as in the same realm. But many people who have been hearing this since childhood have not absorbed the implications of it, perhaps feel remote from the nonhuman world, are not sure they are animals. They would like to feel they might be something better than animals. That's understandable: other animals might feel they are something different than 'just animals' too. But we must contemplate the shared ground of our common biological being before emphasizing the differences." Id. at 16-17. "There is a verse chanted by Zen Buddhists called the 'Four Great Vows.' The first line goes: 'Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.' Shujo muben seigando. It's a bit daunting to announce this intention--aloud--to the universe daily. This vow stalked me for several years and finally pounced: I realize that I had vowed to let the sentient beings save me. In a similar way, the percept against taking life, against causing harm, doesn't stop in the negative,. it is urging us to give life, to undo harm." "Those who attain some ultimate understanding of these things are called 'Buddhas,' which means 'awakened ones.' The world is connected to the English verb 'to bud'." Id. at 194-195.).


Kari Weil, Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now? (New York: Columbia U. Press, 2012).