Philosophy, animality and the life sciences /Wahida Khandker.

Includes bibliographies and index.

1 Forces of nature: evolution, divergence, decimation -- 2 Pathological life and the limits of medical perception -- 3 Violence, pathos and animal life in European philosophy and critical animal studies -- 4 From animal­ machines to cybernetic organisms -- 5 Organicism and complexity: Whitehead and Kauffman -- 6 Aped, mongrelised and scapegoated: adventures in biopolitics and transgenics in Haraway's animal worlds -- Epilogue: a vicious circle.

A study of pathological concepts of animal life in Continental philosophy from Bergson to Haraway. Using animals for scientific research is a highly contentious issue that Continental philosophers engaging with 'the animal question' have been rightly accused of shying away from. Now, Wahida Khandker asks, can Continental approaches to animality and organic life make us reconsider our treatment of non-human animals? By following its historical and philosophical development, Khandker argues that the concept of 'pathological life' as a means of understanding organic life as a whole plays a pivotal role in refiguring the human-animal distinction. Key Features. Looks at the assumptions underpinning about debates about science and animals, and our relation to non-human animals Analyses the relation between the purpose and limitations of research in the life sciences and the concepts of animality and organic life that the sciences have historically employed Explores the significance of key thinkers such as Bergson, Canguilhem, Foucault and Haraway, and opens up the complex and difficult writings of Alfred North Whitehead on this subject

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