Colloqium #36
Jul 19, 2025 at 12:00 pm CEST
Description
What does it mean to live with a dog? More precisely, what does it mean that we do have a world together? Put otherwise: how is it possible that we share a perspective (Alloa, 2020) with a dog? Answering these questions means both looking at how evolution shaped dog’s cognitive abilities and what happens in our lived experiences when we are with a dog. Relying solely on biology is therefore insufficient by the very definition of the issue at stake, and transcendental analysis will thus guide us through an exploration of interspecific intersubjectivity. In this talk, I will first take a look back at the evolutionary history of Canis familiaris who successfully implemented himself into the anthropogenic niche (Miklósi, 2015) and provide you with a brief sketch of the dog’s perceptual world. Then, I will focus on a phenomenological analysis of what it means to share an interspecific world. In the end, my aim is to show that biology and phenomenology shed light on the two sides of the same coin.
Speakers
Nicolas Zaslawski: Former Graduate Assisant at the University of Lausanne, I am currently training to become a dog educator. I am also working on a Phd dissertation about what it phenomenolgically means to share a world with a dog at the University of Fribourg under the co-supervision of prof. E. Alloa and prof. E. Bimbenet.