Entanglements:
Journal of Posthumanities
E-ISSN: 3107-488X

(Article)
Animality and/as Alterity in Posthumanist Thought
Authored By — Nathan Deprospo

Abstract

This article places Heidegger's account of the human-animal distinction in The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics in conversation with contemporary posthumanist theory, arguing that this juxtaposition complicates and enriches posthumanism's conceptual foundations. Rather than offering a straightforward critique of Heidegger's anthropocentrism, the article attends to the productive tension within Heidegger's ontology, treating Heidegger's conceptual instability-his unresolved oscillation between humanism and posthumanism-not as a problem to be corrected but as a pedagogical site for rethinking the very conditions of posthumanist inquiry. Three key concepts guide this reading: ordinary understanding, which refers to the habitual, unreflective modes of thought that pre-structure our relation to being and difference; homesickness, Heidegger's term for Dasein's existential condition of never being fully at home in its own essence; and captivation, the state of absorption Heidegger attributes to animals, which this article argues also describes the human immersion in language and understanding. Drawing on both Diane Davis and Jacques Derrida as central figures in posthumanist animal studies, I both affirm and attempt to extend their interpretations of the human-animal (in)distinction, arguing eventually that alterity-humanity's disavowed animality-is not what lies beneath or beyond ordinary understanding, but is itself our entrapment within ordinary understanding.

Keywords

Heidegger, posthumanism, ordinary understanding, homesickness, captivation

Read/Download Full Article