Philosophers and Animals from The Perspective of John M. Coetzee

We know the South-African Coetzee more as a man of letters as Iris Murdoch. His place in literature is as important as he was awarded to Nobel Prize 2003. Many novels of this important writer which were written in English were translated into Turkish. Coetzee, however, has an interest in animals besides literature which is an important field of philosophical discussions. He has lectured at the university on this subject and they have been published under the name of The Lives of Animals. Coetzee has succeeded in influencing important philosophers with his novels and this latest work. For example, important philosophers such as Peter Singer, Cora Diamond, Stanley Cavell, John McDowell, and Stephan Mulhall have somehow turned to Coetzee’s works. Singer, a pioneer of contemporary animal rights discussions, contributed his views to The Lives of Animals. Mulhall, who recently drew attention with his works on philosophy of literature and cinema, wrote a book directly on Coetzee. This work, titled as The Wounded Animal, examines Coetzee’s approach to philosophy and animals by paying attention to his literature. The purpose of this study is to see Coetzee’s arguments on animals; to evaluate the assesses of a literary man for animals which is an important subject of discussion especially within philosophy