Heidegger and Animals: New Insights from Ethology and Evolutionary Biology (New Heidegger Research)

In this open access volume, Jerome C. Regier provides a comprehensive exploration of Heidegger’s animal philosophy throughout the Gesamtausgabe, challenging its key ontological claims, whilst also updating the discussion to incorporate new insights from evolutionary biology and ethology. Heidegger and Animals offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between humans and our fellow animals.It does this by exploring Heidegger’s philosophical writings and oft-cited claim that there is an ontological abyss separating humans and human Dasein (whose way of being Heidegger calls "existence") and animals (whose way of being he calls "captivation").Scrutinizing Heidegger’s emphasis on human Dasein’s distinctive way of being and his approach to ethology, experimental biologist Regier challenges Heidegger’s ontological interpretation of animal behavior.In particular he does this by drawing on and reinterpreting numerous studies of bees and other arthropods, octopuses and other cephalopod