Course Code: HUMA 240
Academic Year: 2024-2025
This course examines concepts of humanity from a compelling new perspective: the analysis of our relationships with non-human animals. Western thought has typically drawn a rigid distinction between the human and the animal, but contemporary thinkers are challenging this idea. In this course, we will consider questions of humanity and animality through various lenses and across various disciplines. These may include philosophy, science, religion, ethics, sociology, cultural studies, literature, the law and more. From Aristotle and Descartes to Disney, PETA and beyond, we get up close and critical with the other species that share our natural and cultural worlds and with the human thinkers who are shaping this exciting area of study.