Scholars have been criticized for focusing on our fellow mammals or vertebrates, under the general rubric of “animal history”. Lumping all animals together minimizes their variety and reifies the distinction between “the animal” and “the human.”
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Scholars have been criticized for focusing on our fellow mammals or vertebrates, under the general rubric of “animal history”. It is true that the animal kingdom is vaster and more varied, but lumping all its occupants together minimizes this variety and reifies the distinction between “the animal” and “the human,” which is equally problematic. So it makes sense for humanists to pay as much attention to biology as to philosophy.