Behaving like an Animal? Some Implications of the Philosophical Debate on the Animality in Man

The hierarchical situation of the biotic community in contemporary times, the Anthropocene, pivots on the principle of the superiority of man over non-human animals; on this principle is based the claim that only humans are worthy of moral consideration and legal protection. At a common sense level, this idea is frequently taken as fact; from a philosophical and anthropological perspective, it shows up in a plurality of aspects and is differentiated in cognitive, moral, juridical, and political representations. In this contribution, we will outline that it rests on ontological notions which are mostly implicit and unexpressed in common sense, and are more explicit and clear in philosophy, anthropology, and juridical and political thought. The superiority of man, in other terms, is seen as depending on the presence of an element, structure, or instance that is ontologically different from all other entities in the world, which grounds and justifies any other form of superiority.