The resistible rise of ethics? Social sciences and the animal issue

Résumé 0

This article analyzes the relationship between social sciences and the rise of the ‘animal cause’. Tracing the way in which the object ‘human-animal relation’ has developed in the Anglo-American context (in connection with the Animal Studies community) and French context, I defend the idea that the general evolution of these studies participates in the rise of zoocentrism. More specifically, I analyze the way in which the antispeciesist theory and animal ethics, both highly influential in the Anglo-American world, have been received in France. Particular attention is paid to the criticisms formulated against these theories by academics in the social sciences. I show how these criticisms contribute to making animal ethics an obligatory point of passage for any academic reflection on human-animal relationships and how they participate in expanding the realm of ethics, by giving animal ethics a new editorial space, i.e., that of social sciences.