Transform Zoé in Bíos: Democracy, Representation and Animals

Abstract

The anthropocentric gap whereby sets a radical difference between man and other animals not only justified the mistreatment and abuse of the last ones by the first ones, but has served as an excuse to exclude different human groups of the policy community (bios). This segregationist movement has been driven from two areas: the racist science that rank different population according to their distance or proximity to the beasts; and those biopolitical projects that reduce individuals to their biological condition (zoe) stripping of speech and rights. The present work will be positioned against this ostracism and defend a conception of democracy that, incorporating mechanisms from political and scientific representation, would integrate in the political sphere voiceless beings. A democracy of this type would stop considering the discourse competence as a necessary condition for political representation and would give voice to human and nonhuman animals who do not possess or have lost the ability to express their own interests linguistically.