Human and non-human beings. Possibilities of interaction

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the ways for interaction between man and non-human beings. Those ways are considered in anthropological and philosophical-ecological methodical approaches. The approaches imply rejecting the anthropocentrism as actual ontological basis of the Western cultural tradition. T. Morton models a coexistence of humans and non-human beings as a network uniting all living creatures. Human and non-human beings are now placed in a single process of coexistence and the human ends to be at the top of the natural hierarchy. One of the options to revise the system of interaction of human and non-human beings is to rely on the non-Western (Chinese) philosophical tradition. The anthropological approach to rethinking the position of human in the world is presented in E. Cohn’s project. He considers the human being in the framework of his interactions with the world of non-human often crucial for survival. Based on the semiotics by C. Pierce, Cohn postulates that all living beings are capable to represent the world around them using certain signs for that. A way to establish interspecies communication is animism and concept of perspectivism, which clarifies it. Animism is about the internal similarity of living beings, with a difference in external characteristics. Perspectivism allows to add that every living creature is able to understand the other by accepting his or her point of view, his or her perspective. Thus, the rejection of the anthropocentrism enables development of equal relations of human and non-human beings. Such equal coexistence may have a positive impact on sustainability