The Different Dimension of Animals and the New Culture of Val Plumwood

Abstract

In this article I propose that valuing and respecting animals requires a different frame of thought, of course, the predominant dualism in tradition, but also different from the so-called "egalitarianism". I find this framework in the Australian philosopher Val Plumwood, who analyzes the elements of the Cartesian dualism that make us see the natural world as alien and inferior, and also analyzes the contemporary tendencies to reduce the difference between us and animals. As opposed to both positions, she asserts that current culture must revolve around the "tense equilibrium" between continuity and discontinuity, between equality and difference without making one of these aspects predominate over the other. The category which, in her opinion, allows the understanding of such balance is intentionality; this is common to the reason and the different components of nature but in each case has different notes. In the end, I wonder what is then, the difference of the animals in their similarity with us and I highlight some features we forget today and that shape their plenitude