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

Abstract

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.