Menu
Next in the queue
64
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
13/100Critics
88/100Scholars
91/100Author:
Melanie Challenger
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Date:
March 23, 2021
Blending nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, Challenger reappraises what it means to be human, and defends what it means to be an animal.
What The Reviewers Say
How to Be Animal begins with the premise that our collective self-regard depends on the idea that we are superior to every other type of being. This fiction is predicated on a denial of other animals’ inner complexity, or at least a belief that it can’t approximate, let alone surpass, our own.
This is a provocative, incisive and worried book, carried off with no small degree of élan. It is multi-disciplinary, taking in ecology, philosophy, law, futurology, psychology, palaeontology and anthropology.
In this fascinating and cutting-edge meditation on humanity, British author Challenger presents readers with the truth of their animal lives. Drawing on generations of research in evolution, genetics, and philosophy, Challenger analyzes the human tendency to believe our experiences amount to more than animal entropy.
A searching examination of our intellectual divorce from the natural world.
