The Animal Side

by Jean-Christophe Bailly, Catherine Porter

The Animal Side is a manifesto on the importance of animals for human thought. It attempts to characterize the importance, for human beings, of the fact that animals exist. Adopting a philosophical and poetic approach, the book seeks to show that animals’ ways of inhabiting the earth are, for human consciousness, an expansion and an exploration of what philosophers and poets have tried to name by speaking of the Open.

Beginning with the story of an encounter with a deer on a road at night, the book proceeds by showing that, beyond the diversity of animal life and the ways animals differ from human beings, there is a “layer of the perceptible” on which we all draw, humans and animals alike, in our own ways. At present, however, this layer itself is at risk. Thus the book can also be read as a defense and illustration of animals’ modes of
being, and as a plea for their survival.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Philosophy, Nature

100 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Lucinette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Partiel de Nico de ce soir de mort là, j’en ai marre
Mais bon y’avait de très belles phrases et la thèse est belle, mais franchement Jean Christophe tu utilises des mots trop compliqué qui ne sont même pas nécessaires je trouve alors tu m’a perdue à plein d’endroits…Mais c’était quand même un peu poétique

[ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy bueno, poético pero siempre en lo filosófico...explora la Concepción del Ser magnífico

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author engages in a philosophical dissertation on the relationship between humans and animals. He highlights their commonalities, most notably vision and how to some extent animals see the world. He also discusses the role they play in human lives and how their absence would make our lives emptier.

The topic is interesting, but the verbiage is high browed and long-winded. The author often dances around the point that he wishes to make. At times, the chapters seem to be repetitive although the language and examples used are distinct from the previous ones. At other times, one wishes that the author would have spent more time and elaborated on the subject to make his point clearer. Suffice it to say that if the author had been more succinct and concise in his writing the book would have been far better. Therefore, it rates 3.5 stars.

[Margaryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite the book I was expecting, in the sense that Bailly takes a more informal, poetic route that results in more of a meandering contemplation of the role of animals in our lives, rather than a focused and argumentative approach. If one has already read enough within the field, Bailly's text does not add much. I did love his discussion of contact in the beginning, how it is not about human becoming animal or vice versa but rather how the two exist close to each other, in a kind of tension.

[chloeylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

une ode à l’existence « simple » des animaux.
si beau à lire, ouvre différentes perspectives quant à notre rapport aux animaux

[KA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous book of philosophy that borders on poetry. I hope there will be lots more to come from the discipline of philosophy on animals and the animality of humans.