Animals as People: From Universal Production to Collective Creativity

Abstract

The article presents a reflection on the overcoming of the severing, characteristic for Anthropocene, between human and other animals, and analyses the link between labor and collectivity. The first part critically reconsiders Karl Marx’s humanist thesis on labor as human’s species-being as alienated, and suggests a new perspective on the understanding of the work of animals as the universal production within the framework of the ecological whole. The second part addresses Martin Heidegger’s reflections on the instinctive behavior of bees and demonstrates his misconception of the collective nature of life of these insects. The essay concludes with a hypothesis according to which the collective character of processes of universal production contains an important potential for the overcoming of alienation both in the social and ecological sense: particularly, forms of collective creative activity, such as singing and dancing, are conducive to finding something in common in different animals including human beings.