As the cross-disciplinary field of animal studies grows, it becomes clear that a good understanding of living beings, and animals in particular, necessitates the development of a new paradigm in which the natural sciences work together with philosophy, art, literature, ethics, social and cultural sciences and political theory. The project “Animal Imagination” develops a new phenomenology of animal imagination and investigates the role human and non-human imaginations play in the development of this science of animals in need of re-foundation.
Recognizing the animal's capacity for creative sense-making requires integrating the intersubjective relationship we share with them into the realm of animal science, demanding a phenomenological approach. The challenge lies in questioning classical notions of subjectivity and cognition deeply rooted in an anthropocentric tradition. Further, the “Animal Imagination” project argues that intersubjective relations require recognizing the imaginative powers that come into play in the perspectives and actions of other human and non-human subjects, their ability to shape their own virtual world of possibilities. In this regard, phenomenology needs to integrate recent findings from animal science, especially cognitive ethology and biosemiotics.
This project proposes to bridge the gap between the humanities and a traditional, objectifying scientific approach by providing the conceptual and methodological framework for a fruitful dialogue between animal natural science and phenomenology.