The Aesthetics of Animal Companions

Authors

• Samantha Vice, University of WitwatersrandFollow

Abstract

In the philosophical aesthetics literature, domestic animals, and in particular companion animals or pets, are notable for their absence. I examine the few available accounts of the aesthetics of animals, extend them to animal companions, and argue that they are lacking in important respects. An appropriate aesthetics of these animals should recognize their unique status as individual animals in human spaces, imbued with human meanings, and yet essentially other.