Suchergebnisse

The article defends a conception of ecology that considers what ecosystems mean not only in themselves but also for themselves. Each living being is thus a message for another living being, and not merely a functional piece in a physical process of energy exchange or in an evolutionary process in which individual reproduction is all that counts. The article deems that the hatred of the animal kingdom characteristic of Western history and the resulting atrophy of our imagination of the living world explain our blindness. The author suggests Westerners should be more open to non-Western ways of thinking, which might help overcome their difficulty in thinking through the existential, ethical and cultural stakes involved in the present collapse of biodiversity.

Résumé Deux thèmes majeurs sont systématiquement négligés dans le mythe de Prométhée : celui de l'humain « victime », et celui de la revanche à prendre sur l'animal. Ces thèmes sont pourtant devenus des piliers de la pensée occidentale vis-à-vis de la Nature. Ils jouent un rôle fondamental dans le désastre écologique actuel. Rêvons à un Prométhée qui aurait posé comme condition à la réception du feu la nécessité pour l'homme de ne rien faire qui pût agresser les autres animaux de façon démente.

The article suggests that the phylogenic basis for contemporary Western artistic practices lies in a social practice of the distinctive features found in the species, as seen in certain birds and mammals. Using the cases of birdsong, ape-paintings, knot-tying in certain orangutans and the intriguing stone-handling of some monkeys, the article shows that the question of non-human artistic practices is not only largely unexplored, but that contemporary ethology and psychology are still incapable of really tackling the problem. More generally, some of the problems encountered stem from the fact that one conception of the social sciences was constructed in opposition to the animal, leaving the study of the latter to biology. In this perspective, the study of artistic activity in non-human animals is a true challenge for the social sciences of the future.