A structuralist approach to animalism

Animalism is the view that each of us, each human person, is identical to a human animal—a member of the species Homo sapiens. This project aims to formulate a version of animalism that accommodates our best current science, especially our current biology. There are three steps that I will make to this aim: first, I will argue that current (or ‘traditional’) versions of animalism have been unnecessarily relying on problematic metaphysics. Once a more scientifically-minded metaphysics has been established, I will argue that such a scientific metaphysics is better suited for defending and developing animalism in that evidence from biology (as well as other sciences) can be used to ground and bolster the position. This leads us to my second step: although animalism is more adequately defended and developed by our best current biology, said biology could be more easily understood if it was understood in non-substance terms. I will argue that a substantavist metaphysics is not as equipped to make sense of biological individuality as is certain non-substantavist alternatives. Biological individuality understood in terms of biological structures will be proposed and defended. A structural metaphysics is a non-substantavist metaphysics based on Ontic Structural Realism, a form of realism within the philosophy of science. With a structural theory of biological individuality in hand, I will make my third and final step: to articulate a scientifically informed animalism that is grounded in structure rather than substance. This structural animalism is preferable to its substance-based animalist alternatives in that it is more accommodating to our best current science. It is also able to better respond to certain problems and criticisms than its alternatives.