What it is like to be an animal
It is one thing to say that humans are animals, but a different one to actually say "I am an animal". What happens to us when we make this realization about ourselves?
When the line between who is human and who is animal is blurred, we can experience a kind of metaphysical vertigo. In a recent article, Pär Segerdahl (Link removed) takes us on a philosophical exploration of the dizziness we experience when we talk about ourselves as animals. His starting point is a personal experience. Pär Segerdahl shares the dizziness he felt about his own humanness when an ape told him to be quiet and later called him a monster.
In the article, Pär Segerdahl distinguishes between three forms of this metaphysical vertigo. He offers a philosophical analysis of the difficulties we experience with being humans when we are in fact animals. But it is also difficult to be animals when we are in fact human. To handle the dizziness we need to survey different ways of making the difference between us and the other animals. In the article, Pär Segerdahl discusses four ways of making the difference.
Read the article in Nordic Wittgenstein Review: Being Humans When We Are Animals
And more on the Ethics Blog