You Don’t Know What Pain Is: Affect, the Lifeworld, and Animal Ethics
Schaefer, Donovan O.
Schaefer, Donovan O.
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Abstract
Affect theory is a subfield that encourages us to think about how we interact with each other and the world along registers that are not reducible to language. This has suggested to some scholars that affect theory can also be used to better understand the experience of animals. This article explores a merger between affect theory, animal studies and the lifeworld tradition of phenomenology. The upshot of this is a way of seeing how animals, like humans, have rich religious worlds that are shaped by pre-linguistic textures of affect. This perspective indicates that animals can be thrown into a state of trauma by being deprived of these lifeworlds. In light of this, the article considers the ethical implications of the modern factory farm system, particularly the practice of mass confinement.
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Article
Date
2017-02-01
Identifier
SAGE-10.1177/0953946816674146
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0953946816674146
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0953946816674146
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10.1177/0953946816674146
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© The Author(s) 2016