Animal Ethics as a Field of Political Figurations

Iván Darío Ávila Gaitán
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7318-4379
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
idavilag@unal.edu.co 

Abstract:

This article reads the field of animal ethics as a space for producing political figurations. Firstly, it addresses the understanding of animal ethics not only as a field of study, but also as a field of forces in which various historically and politically loaded concepts emerge. These concepts are perceived as figurations, that is, ways of alluding to reality that necessarily imply its alteration. Secondly, we examine the figurations of speciesism, the animal as a sentient being, as a subject (of some life), as a slave and a subject susceptible of liberation and, finally, as a sentient-conscious subject. The article concludes with a dialogue in which clarifications are made on the problem of sentience and themes such as veganism, subjection and animal citizenship.

Keywords: animal ethics, speciesism, sentience, consciousness, figurations, veganism.