Vinciane Despret

"You are about to enter a new genre, that of scientific fables, by which I don't mean science fiction, or false stories about science, but, on the contrary, true ways of understanding how difficult it is to figure out what animals are up to." --Bruno Latour, form the Foreword Is it all right to urinate in front of animals? What does it mean when a monkey throws its feces at you? Do apes really know how to ape? Do animals form same-sex relations? Are they the new celebrities of the twenty-first century? This book poses twenty-six such questions that stretch our preconceived ideas about what animals do, what they think about, and what they want. In a delightful abecedarium of twenty-six chapters, Vinciane Despret argues that behaviors we identify as separating humans from animals do not actually properly belong to humans. She does so by exploring incredible and often funny adventures about animals and their involvements with researchers, farmers, zookeepers, handlers, and other human beings. Do animals have a sense of humor? In reading these stories it is evident that they do seem to take perverse pleasure in creating scenarios that unsettle even the greatest of experts, who in turn devise newer and riskier hypotheses that invariably lead them to conclude that animals are not nearly as dumb as previously thought. These deftly translated accounts oblige us, along the way, to engage in both ethology and philosophy. Combining serious scholarship with humor that will resonate with anyone, this book--with a foreword by noted French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist of science Bruno Latour--is a must not only for specialists but also for general readers, including dog owners, who will never look at their canine companions the same way again.

What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?

modos de hacer y pensar los territorios

Habitar como un pájaro

opowieści tych, co zostają

Wszystko dla naszych zmarłych

Os macacos sabem mesmo macaquear? Os animais podem se revoltar? Qual o interesse dos ratos nos experimentos? Por que dizem que as vacas não fazem nada? Neste livro, a filósofa da ciência Vinciane Despret propõe vinte e seis perguntas que procuram responder o que os animais teriam a dizer se os humanos fizessem as perguntas certas. Com humor particular, a autora reúne uma série de situações que desafiam nossas ideias preconcebidas do que os animais fazem, desejam ou pensam. Baseada na literatura científica e etológica, Despret cria fábulas saborosas em que o conhecimento especializado sobre os animais é colocado à prova. Chamando a atenção para um “academicocentrismo” generalizado – ou, dito de outra forma, para o fato de o conhecimento científico sobre os animais se basear em experimentos de laboratório elaborados em condições altamente artificiais e descartar as diversas situações de interação “natural” entre humanos e bichos –, a autora nos mostra que, para compreender o que dizem os animais, os recursos da ciência devem ser mobilizados junto com os das humanidades. Ao recuperar histórias engraçadas e surpreendentes que aconteceram com os animais e seus observadores, Despret nos ensina que os primeiros têm senso de humor, inteligência e perspicácia: às vezes, parecem ter prazer em criar situações que surpreendem os especialistas mais eruditos.

Fábulas científicas

Que diriam os animais?

Solange Pessoa

Miguel Alpuente Civera

Autobiografía de un pulpo y otros relatos de anticipación

Et autres récits d'anticipation

Autobiographie d'un poulpe

Isabelle Stengers

Les auteures se sont posés la question : qu'avons-nous appris, nous les filles de Virginia qui avons, de fait, rejoint les rangs des hommes cultivés ? Et comment prolonger le cri de Woolf «Penser nous devons» dans une université en crise ? Elles ont relayés ces questions auprès d'autres femmes. Leurs témoignages ont ouvert des dimensions inattendues. Elles ont raconté des anecdotes, des perplexités, des événements ou des rencontres qui les ont rendues capables de dire non et de résister, et aussi de continuer à penser et à créer dans la joie et l'humour.

que font les femmes à la pensée?

Les faiseuses d'histoires

Yuval Noah Harari

Thomas Chatterton Williams

Kate Manne

William Davies

Peter Wohlleben

Stephanie Kelton

David French

Richard Kearney

Mary Harrington

Martha Craven Nussbaum

Taylor Dotson

Patrick Stokes

Amia Srinivasan

Judith Pamela Butler

Olivier Abel

Gwenola Ricordeau

Tess Johnson

Hugo Micheron

Shane Trotter

Kmele Foster

En 2022, dans un monde en proie à une profonde incertitude, la tendance du débat public est à la polarisation idéologique et identitaire, qu'il s'agisse de la gestion de la pandémie, de la libération de la parole des femmes ou de la question de la laïcité. Donner à entendre la diversité des voix qui tentent detrouver dans l'incertitude l'occasion de relancer la pensée : telle est l'ambition de cet ouvrage qui rassemble les grands textes de philosophes, écrivains, historiens ou économistes parus dans la presse internationale en 2021, sélectionnés par la rédaction de Philosophie magazine.

22 penseurs pour 2022

"Faire son deuil", tel est l'impératif qui s'impose à tous ceux qui se trouvent confrontés au décès d'un proche. Cela va-t-il de soi ? Se débarrasser de ses morts est-il un idéal indépassable auquel nul ne saurait échapper s'il ne veut pas trop souffrir ? L'auteure a écouté ce que les gens racontent dans leur vie la plus quotidienne. Et une histoire en a amené une autre. "J'ai une amie qui porte les chaussures de sa grand-mère afin qu'elle continue à arpenter le monde. Une autre est partie gravir une des montagnes les plus hautes avec les cendres de son père pour partager avec lui les plus beaux levers de soleil, etc." Elle s'est laissé instruire par les manières d'être qu'explorent, ensemble, les morts et les vivants. Elle a su apprendre de la façon dont les vivants se rendent capables d'accueillir la présence de leurs défunts. Depuis un certain temps, les morts s'étaient faits discrets, perdant toute visibilité. Aujourd'hui, il se pourrait que les choses changent et que les morts soient à nouveau plus actifs. Ils viennent parfois réclamer, plus fréquemment proposer leur aide, soutenir ou consoler... Ils le font avec tendresse, souvent avec humour. On dit trop rarement à quel point certains morts peuvent nous rendre heureux ! Ce livre a reçu le prix des Rencontres philosophiques de Monaco 2016.

Récits de ceux qui restent

Au bonheur des morts

Broken hearts, edgy nerves, tightened throats—our emotions grab and take hold of us. But if our emotions appear obvious to us, are they necessarily real or universal? This, of course, is what researchers in physiology and psychology assert, but they will ultimately be disappointed. Vinciane Despret sets out in this book to show how some of our emotions, precisely those we thought were a natural part of our make-up, do not exist unless they have been inscribed in our subjectivity through the mediation of culture. Emotions do not exist per se, but only within relations to others. Anthropologists and ethnologists often return from distant regions and remote islands with emotions unknown to their peers at home, and which can only be expressed in the tribal tongue they have learned. Following such discoveries, one should not be surprised to find that anger does not exist among the Uktus, and the Ikfalus have to teach fear to their children. One only has to consider the emotions of other cultures and traditions to recognize that they are human productions with wide and significant variations, like good manners. Our emotions, finally, represent the way that we see the world and try to make it our own.

Our Emotional Makeup

An award-winning exploration of the presence of the dead in the lives of the living A common remedy after suffering the loss of a loved one is to progress through the “stages of grief,” with “acceptance” as the final stage in the process. But is it necessary to leave death behind, to stop dwelling on the dead, to get over the pain? Vinciane Despret thinks not. In her fascinating, elegantly translated book, this influential thinker argues that, in practice, people in all cultures continue to enjoy a lively, inventive, positive relationship with their dead. Through her unique storytelling woven from ethnographic sources and her own family history, Despret assembles accounts of those who have found ways to live their daily lives with their dead. She rejects the idea that one must either subscribe to “complete mourning” (in a sense, to get rid of the dead) or else fall into fantasy and superstition. She explores instead how the dead still play an active, tangible role through those who are living, who might assume their place in a family or in society; continue their labor or art; or thrive from a shared inheritance or an organ donation. This is supported by dreams and voices, novels, television and popular culture, the work of clairvoyants, and the everyday stories and activities of the living. For decades now, in the West, the dead have been discreet and invisible. Today, especially as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Despret suggests that perhaps we will be willing to engage with the dead in ways that bring us happiness despite our loss. Despret’s unique method of inquiry makes her book both entertaining and instructive. Our Grateful Dead offers a new, pragmatic approach to social and cultural research and may indeed provide compassionate therapy for those of us coping with death.

Stories of Those Left Behind

Our Grateful Dead

Exposition consacrée aux formes diverses des rapports entre les hommes et les animaux : perception, crainte, cohabitation, chasse, élevage et dressage, etc.

Bêtes et hommes

Que signifie l'épreuve du labyrinthe pour un rat ? Le fait de chercher à comprendre le point de vue des animaux pourrait inciter les chercheurs à modifier leurs pratiques.

Penser comme un rat

In the first days of spring, birds undergo a spectacular metamorphosis. After a long winter of migration and peaceful coexistence, they suddenly begin to sing with all their might, varying each series of notes as if it were an audiophonic novel. They cannot bear the presence of other birds and begin to threaten and attack them if they cross a border, which might be invisible to human eyes but seems perfectly tangible to birds. Is this display of bird aggression just a pretence, a game that all birds play? Or do birds suddenly become territorial – and, if so, why? By attending carefully to the ways that birds construct their worlds and ornithologists have tried to understand them, Despret sheds fresh light on the activities of both and, at the same time, enables us to become more aware of the multiple worlds and modes of existence that characterize the planet we share in common with birds and other species.

Living as a Bird

Donna J. Haraway

Bruno Latour

Thierry Drumm

Emilie Hache

Fleur Courtois-l'Heureux

David Jamar

Didier Debaise

Maryam Kolly

Claude de Jonckheere

Pierre Montebello

Au cours de la dernière décennie s'est produit en France un renouveau d'intérêt pour des penseurs qui se sont vus accoler l'épithète de « spéculatifs », tels que William James, Gabriel Tarde, Alfred North Whitehead et Etienne Souriau. Ce renouveau semble indissociable de la mise en crise généralisée des modes de pensée qui, d'une manière ou d'une autre, devaient leur autorité à une référence au progrès, à la rationalité, à l'universalité. Mise en crise redoutable car on ne se défait pas sans danger de ce qui a servi de boussole à la pensée euro-américaine depuis qu'il est question de modernité. Mise en crise nécessaire car ces modes de pensée sont sourds à la nouveauté effective de cette époque marquée par la menace du désordre climatique, le saccage systématique de la terre, la difficulté d'entendre les voix qui nous engagent à penser devant le lien fort entre la modernité et les ravages de la colonisation. S'il faut parler de « gestes spéculatifs », c'est que la pensée spéculative est trop souvent définie comme purement théorique, abusivement abstraite, ou relevant tout simplement d'un imaginaire déconnecté de toute prise sur le réel. Elle est, telle que nous voudrions en hériter, affaire de gestes, d'engagements par et pour un possible, de virtualités situées. Le sens de tels engagements tient à leurs conséquences, à la modification de l'appréhension du présent qu'ils entraînent. Cet ouvrage rassemble des contributions qui explorent certains des concepts philosophiques qui appellent et rendent possibles de tels gestes spéculatifs, et qui explorent aussi des situations dont nous savons qu'il faut apprendre à les penser autrement.

Gestes spéculatifs

Qu'est-ce que l'instinct territorial chez les oiseaux ? Vinciane Despret mène l'enquête et, sous sa plume, oiseaux et ornithologues deviennent intensément vivants et extrêmement attachants.

Habiter en oiseau

Virginia Woolf, to whom university admittance had been forbidden, watched the universities open their doors. Though she was happy that her sisters could study in university libraries, she cautioned women against joining the procession of educated men and being co-opted into protecting a “civilization” with values alien to women. Now, as Woolf’s disloyal (unfaithful) daughters, who have professional positions in Belgian universities, Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret, along with a collective of women scholars in Belgium and France, question their academic careers and reexamine the place of women and their role in thinking, both inside and outside the university. They urge women to heed Woolf’s cry—Think We Must—and to always make a fuss about injustice, cruelty, and arrogance.

The Unfaithful Daughters of Virginia Woolf

Women Who Make a Fuss

Vinciane Despret

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