Session 4: To Kill or Not to Kill?
Moderator: Antoine Lilti (Collège de France)
Abstract
The traditional notion of what is “unique to humans” has now been rendered largely obsolete by advances in ethology, comparative psychology, and animal rights movements. It is further undermined by the emergence of AI, some of whose intellectual capabilities surpass those of even the most brilliant humans. This challenge compels humans to reinvent themselves by forging unprecedented existential partnerships with animals against these machines, and this shift forces them to rethink animality itself on new grounds.
Dominique Lestel
Dominique Lestel teaches contemporary philosophy and philosophical ethology in the Department of Philosophy at ENS-Ulm, having introduced the first courses in cognitive science there in the 1990s. He was a founding member of the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) at the ENS, and he is a member of the Husserl Archives (UMR 8547). He has held numerous teaching and research positions at universities abroad. Most recently, he was a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (2017–2018), a Berggruen Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (2018–2019), and a Visiting Professor at Tokyo College, University of Tokyo (winter–spring 2025). His research has been funded by the Berggruen Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Australian Research Council.
