Widening Inclusion

Stretching the boundary line in democratic participation

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Miscellaneous, grade: 2.2, The Open University, language: English, abstract: Since Aristotle first set out his famous definition of the 'political animal?, numerous thinkers have re-interpreted, evaluated and attempted to extend the term to living beings Aristotle himself did not intend to endow with political rights. This essay will primarily look at the works of thinkers like Wollstonecraft, Bentham, Latour, among others, who sought to include nature, i.e. non-human beings, into the political sphere. In their works they constantly challenged the notion of a 'boundary line?, which aims to draw a distinction between the human and the non-human being. The main section will depart from an Aristotelian point of view in which characteristics would be absolutely necessary to having the privilege to entitlement of political rights. Afterwards, specifics, which have been put forward by other thinkers and aim at incorporating minorities and non-humans into the political sphere, will be discussed. At the end of the piece it should become clear that ideas about a more inclusive approach to nature are neither new, nor are they bizarre and thus should not be dismissed indiscriminately. Limits of this all-encompassing inclusive approach are exemplified by the works of Nilsen. [...]