rrom antmal as automaton

i*Eii§ilip
I-.-^.^'
rrom
antmal as automaton
to the rights of living thiings
r
In the hisrory ofthought there has always been
a
contrast between men and animais thar
sees
radonaliry as rhe specific facror thar differentiares
them insuperably and sers up an indispurabie
superioriry. From the Biblical idea thai Adam
received
..
from God the privilege of naming the animals ro
Descartes who considered them J,rtomatons
arrd
mechanisms without soul, reason ,"d l""g;;;;;r"
rhe cenrra.l factors in a difference which le"giriirires
the total administration
,n
- when there is ,rJ, -"
absolute domination of rhe ,.,irnd *oria.
-
In
contemporary debate many scholars face
the
jssue of whar inrelligence
and rhe emotional
aspecr of animals are; they debate
the ctassic
visions marked bg antlropocentrigm in order
to
relocate hqqarls.in the ,,coral oiìlfe,,
lDarwin;
and to highlighr thei, phyt;;;.;ù"lrd:
Recognising the relationships between h.rÀ"n
and animal- subjectiviry identi8,ing the lineì
of
murual exchange, would mern quJsdonins
rhe
sub-ordinate posirion of animals ,na i-rgiii.rg
different ways of inreracting
*i,h ,h.*.
-
critical
citizenship
-*-:lr§ì::ff§ìx§§i§§§iiii:il
,1;t51u*,.,1gfOale
The fox and the child
0irector
Starring
Luc Jacquet
Bertille
*oni-"'nt'u'
lsabelle Carré' Thomas Laliberté
Runningtime 92 minutes
Production
Genre
France' 2007
drama, adventure' fantasg
a wild fox'
a young girl,meets by chance
In a village in the French Alps
girl starts
the
*'lJ*l instinct' voung
Struck by the animal'';;;;"";
It^tttit'g to understand its behaviour
to observe and get ttott'to it'
of this
with the surrounding woods' Out
and its particular relationship
between
tt"st' based on communication
develops a true relatio"titf "f
forever'
species and destined to last
alf.r.".
Luc Jacquet's
themes of philosophicalthinking'
Picking up on one of the classic
and nuances behind the human-animal
film investigates tne compìexkg
debate' What are
with'r-n a powerful contemporarg
relationship, placing itself
have ang? How
animals' admitting that theg
the thoughts and emotions of
ls ang form of
them?
and how are theg different f rom
are theu similar to men
communicationpossiblebetweenthedifferentspecies?Thefilm'sUoungcentral
the relationship
and other questions through
character learns to
Her
she meets in the French woods
fox
that is established withthe wild
specificallg
fox's
not onlg this particular
observations lead her to understand
'n'*t"nt'u
animalbehavioursbutt''ont'nO'''Oualsubjectivitg'discoveringinthefirst
the surrounding
to
animal life and its connection
person the complexitu of
environment.
70
aa
iiljèijÉr,
From pantheism
to ecologu
The Stoic cosmos is a rational and providential
order ofsense that governs and unifies the
totaliry of things; in the words of Cicero it is
described as "the shared ciq, of gods and men".
This Stoic conception of the universe is tied
ro the ideals of the rYise man's imperturbabilitg and
innerfreedom and underlines in particular the
network of relationship.r of rhe events in nature.
Realiry presents itself as whole equipped with
total cohesion and every one of its points is
integrated in the global order.
a scientific setting and without explicit metaphysical
irnplications, the logic of the intenelationship betreen things is
In
found again in the holisric hlpotheses on evolution and life
on Earth. According to the Gaia hypothesis, the geophysical
components
-
oceans, seas, atmosphere, earth's surface
-
maintain balance and suitabiliry for life by virtue of the action
of living organisms, vegetables and animals. In ùis way a
planetary uniry is defined which could not be expressed as .
the simple sum of the elements which make it up and which
radically questions the impact of human action in relation to
the environment and "ecological problems".
w:' j