In the late 1920s Martin Heidegger taught a university course that he devoted in large part to an interpretation of animality. He thus entered into dialogue with the main texts of Jakob von Uexküll, an established biologist and innovator in the discipline. Although the scientist’s metaphysical orientation was distant from that of the philosopher, the latter will have a way of constructing, on the basis of von Uexküll’s observations, a view of the nonhuman living being that can prevent inadequate scientific interpretations and, above all, its constant anthropomorphization. Besides manifesting itself as a field of study to be approached with great critical caution, the animal will also reveal itself in its radically enigmatic aspect.
