1. ¹University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
2. ²University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence: Vinciane Despret, 26 Impasse de l'Ange, 4000 Liège, Belgium. E-mail: v.despret@ulg.ac.be

Abstract

When philosophers deal with the issue of the difference between human and animal beings, there is always a double "we" that imposes itself: "we" know that "we" are different. In order to resist these "we's" the author has explored certain situations in which human and animals work together, and more extensively the everyday practices of cow and pig breeders. Interviewing the breeders, however, highlights an important issue: might the question of "the" difference, as philosophers have outlined it, be of interest to those who work with animals? Letting them construct "their" questions, we learn that these practices are best described in terms of achievement. Therefore, the questions that breeders think should be addressed are not the differences between human and non-human beings but rather the differences between situations, which offer both humans and animals different opportunities to accomplish subjectivities.