Animalism (philosophy)

In philosophy, animalism is a theory about personal identity according to which personal identity is a biological property of human beings, just as it is for other animals.

Animalism is not a theory about personhood, that is, a theory about what it means to be a person. An animalist could hold that robots or angels were persons without that contradicting his animalism.

According to the German philosopher W. Sombart, "Animalism", in opposition to "Hominism", contains every ideology that gives up the notion of humans possessing a life-form of their own, and understands them as a part of nature, as an animal species.
The concept of animalism is among interests of philosophers Eric T. Olson, David Wiggins, Paul F. Snowdon.

Notes

1.     Baker, Lynne Rudder. 'When Does a Person Begin?', in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred Dycus Miller, and Jeffrey Paul (eds.), Personal Identity, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 39.

2.     Eric T. Olson (2007) What are we?: a study in personal ontology, Oxford University Press, section 2.1.

3.     (Historisches Wörterbuch der philosophie, 1971 Historical Dictionary of Philosophy )

4.      Olson, Eric T. What are we?: a study in personal ontology, Oxford University Press, 2007.

5.      Brian Garrett, Personal Identity and Self-Consciousness. Routledge, 1998. 137 pages.

6.      Snowdon, Paul F., Persons, Animals, Ourselves (2014)