Overview of Animal Dehumanization in the Context of Changing Capitalism

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Keywords:

animals, dehumanization, capitalism

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.21860/j.14.1.7

Animals have been our companions since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, with each new civilizational “leap”, the gap between humans and animals widens. From the initial position of equality, we began to see animals as slaves, then as machines, and finally just as numbers. This relationship between animals and humans is gradually deteriorating, and the trend is particularly pronounced with the rise of industrial capitalism, as it exacerbated the “dehumanization” of animals, as well as the simultaneous “animalization” of humans. In that sense, the goal of this paper is modest - it seeks to draw attention to recurrent themes in the evolution of the animal-human relationship across history and to warn how the development of capitalism affects the same relationship. Furthermore, since at the beginning of the 21st century capitalism seems to be going through new fundamental changes, we think it is the right time to pose some questions on the future of this relationship.

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Published

2023-10-05