The human-animal divide in communication: anthropocentric, posthuman and integrationist answers

Kwok, Sinead

doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2020.06.005

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

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What is it Like to be a ‘Batty Telepathic Woman’? Considering Animal Communication in the Anthropocene

Trachsel

2022

TRANSPOSITIONES 2022 Vol. 1, Issue 1: Multiple Knowledges. Learning From/With Other Beings. Multiples Wissen. Lernen Von/Mit An

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The ecological, existential and ethical crisis of the Anthropocene reveals the shortcomings of scientism and rationalism as exclusive means of understanding what is real. Telepathic communication with animals, widely dismissed as "irrational" by academic authorities, represents an epistemological approach to more-than-human life that is arguably consistentwith post-human efforts to escape the dogma of human exceptionalism at the heart of the Anthropocene crisis. Eco-philosopher Timothy Morton'sformulation of ecognosis as "weird embodiment" provides theoretical grounds for considering the possible reality of animal communication.

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What is it Like to be a ‘Batty Telepathic Woman’? Considering Animal Communication in the Anthropocene

Trachsel

2022

TRANSPOSITIONES 2022 Vol. 1, Issue 1: Multiple Knowledges. Learning From/With Other Beings. Multiples Wissen. Lernen Von/Mit An

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Language and radical anthropocentrism: the view from the supercategory

Pablé¹

2022

Semiotica

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The article critically engages with the posthumanist discourse on anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism. It adopts an “integrational” approach to signs, language, and communication, as outlined in the works of Oxford linguist Roy Harris. Integrational linguistics is committed to a demythologized view of “language,” which it considers to exist only as part of the experience of human individuals and human collectivities. From an integrational point of view, language is not an “object” of scientific inquiry, but a complex of human activities that make such an inquiry possible in the first place. This paper argues that posthumanists falsely ascribe language to animals and to hypothetical extraterrestrials. Based on Harris’ concept of the supercategory, it is shown that the worldviews encapsulated in science, history, and religion only make sense because they are human worldviews. No other intelligent life could grasp the various supercategorical discourses, and how they relate to each other, the main reason being that language is a uniquely integrated mode of human communication. The article thus supports a radical anthropocentrism as the only intellectually viable philosophy on which to draw in our reflections on, and inquiries into both intraspecies and interspecies communication.

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Tomás Saraceno: semiotic regimes of posthuman temporalities

Charvát

2023

Semiotica

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Since 2007, Tomás Saraceno has been developing a project that aims to break out of the anthropocentric understanding of communication and coexistence with other animal organisms. In this article, I point out the importance of using modern visualization technologies to analyze and investigate the structure of communication frameworks and their modalities in the animal world, specifically using the example of spiders. The visualization of what is normally invisible to the eye and inaudible to the ear rearticulates the realm of the visible and the audible, which Saraceno then uses for art-critical purposes, with the aim of forming a new type of posthuman attunement to the environment and other animal species. The condition for outlining and articulating Saraceno’s artistic vision is the use of the latest technologies of visualization, which operate on the principle of digital and algorithmic code. They synthesize different planes of affectivity and transform, modulate, and combine the different modes of signs into a single technical-organic complex: they offer new ways of seeing and feeling the world. Thus, hybrid ecology in Saraceno’s case does not imply a return to primordial ways of life, but on the contrary, it forms a semiosphere attuned to a specific plane of consistency that enfolds distinct modes of signs and develops them into an expression of hitherto unsuspected variants of life.

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The human-animal divide in communication: anthropocentric, posthuman and integrationist answers

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

What is it Like to be a ‘Batty Telepathic Woman’? Considering Animal Communication in the Anthropocene

What is it Like to be a ‘Batty Telepathic Woman’? Considering Animal Communication in the Anthropocene

Language and radical anthropocentrism: the view from the supercategory

Tomás Saraceno: semiotic regimes of posthuman temporalities

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