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My Place, My Duty: Zoo Biology as Field Philosophy in the Work of Heini Hediger

When philosophy has delved into the marginal field of zoo biology, it has usually been only to chastise it for turning wild animals into humanised artefacts. Rarely has it asked what this science of stratified assimilation might have to say on wider issues. Yet today when the humanities are grappling with questions of human relationships to animals and the environment, amid their intensification and transformation under the sign of the Anthropocene, it is worth paying attention to the knowledge, techniques, practices, and perhaps even concepts and wisdom, that have developed within this domain. Taking zoo biology seriously as a field of experimentation in multispecies relations, burdened by its colonial and anthropocentric history yet containing the potential for alternative futures, this essay will examine the philosophical significance of the work of the mid-twentieth century Swiss zoo director and animal psychologist Heini Hediger.