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Research Articles
Submitted: 2021-02-05
Published: 2022-10-11

What Is the Animal Class? Idea, Position, Goal

Independent researcher and activist
sentience class power animals subaltern epistemic injustice

Abstract

The article sees politics as aimed at happiness, happiness as dependent on sentience, and animals, the bringers of sentience, as the baseline of politics. Since class, as a relationship of unequal power, destroys happiness, the animal class, having the least power, is also the baseline of class. Partly accepting animals’ positioning as working-class or slaves, but rejecting their classification as super-exploited parts of nature, the article identifies the animal class as subaltern, in respect of powerlessness, epistemic injustice, moral and political invisibility, and colonization. As the lowliest, the animal class defines class itself, providing the strongest argument for its dissolution. 

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