ABSTRACT
There is a complex relationship, or lack of encounter, between Derrida and his ‘followers,’ on the one hand, and animal rights philosophers, on the other. There is a strong British history of debating animal rights, including how these rights can be grounded. French philosophy approaches the question of ‘the animal’ or, better, ‘animals,’ differently, and the borderline between Francophone and Anglophone writing in this area has been marked by animosity towards ‘continental philosophy’ on the part of animal rights philosophers, even while there have been a growing number of Anglophone publications inspired by Derrida’s thinking. Derrida focuses on differences between animals, between humans, and between those designated as one or the other, and thus questions the fixing of the animal-human borderline (in various, changing, places) by the philosophical tradition. He is suspicious of ‘animal rights’ based on the very human rights implicated in constructing frontiers between ‘man’ and other animals.
