Diana Thater gorillagorillagorilla - Universalmuseum Joanneum

dass Tiere wie Schimpansen „weit eher unsere Verwandten denn Maschinen
sind“, damit wir das Tier wenigstens ansatzweise „verstehen“. („Leugnen wir das
Menschliche im Tier?“ In: Discover 18 (7), 1997, p. 50–53). Obwohl de Waals
Beschreibung der Struktur der Leugnung weniger rigoros ist als die von Derrida,
was angesichts des Kontexts keine große Überraschung ist, ist es dennoch bemerkenswert,
dass sowohl der Philosoph als auch der Verhaltensforscher zur selben
Formulierung gelangen.
16 Agamben, Das Offene, p. 101.
17 Zitiert in Agamben, Das Offene, p. 97 f.
18 Man beachte, dass das italienische „ignorare“, wie das französische „ignorer“,
„nicht wissen“ bedeutet und nicht „ignorieren“.
19 Agamben, Das Offene, p. 99, meine Hervorhebung.
Jason Smith 92 93
concealment. It is as if, says Derrida, none of these thinkers has ever
been seen by an animal, as if “their gaze has never intersected with
that of an animal directed at them (forget about being naked). (…)
They have taken no account of the fact that what they call ’animal’
could look at them, and address them from down there, from a wholly
other origin” (p. 13). It is this philosophical fiction, the “as if” that denies
this experience that everyone has had, that is reversed by Derrida’s
autobiographical testimony or confession. In a short essay called “Are
We in Anthropodenial?”, the ethologist Frans B.M. de Waal speaks of a
similar form of denial that structures scientific discourses on the animal,
arguing that what is necessary, in order to begin to “know” the animal,
is to “admit” that animals such as chimpanzees “are far more like our
relatives than like machines” (“Are We in Anthropodenial?” In: Discover
18 [1997]: pp. 50–53). While de Waal’s articulation of the structure of
“denial” is less rigorous than Derrida’s, as is to be expected given the
context, it is remarkable that both the philosopher and the ethologist
would arrive at the same formulation.
16 Agamben, The Open, p. 92.
17 Quoted in Agamben, The Open, pp. 89–90.
18 Note that the Italian “ignorare”, like the French “ignorer”, means to
be unaware of, not to ignore.
19 Agamben, The Open, p. 91, my emphasis.