NDPR Sonya N. Özbey Different Beasts: Humans and Animals in Spinoza and the Zhuangzi

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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2026.03.5 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews

Sonya N. Özbey, Different Beasts: Humans and Animals in Spinoza and the Zhuangzi, Oxford University Press, 2025, 344pp., $20.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780197841013.

Reviewed by Joshua R. Brown, Mount St. Mary’s University

A significant presupposition of many in the modern ecological movement is that current environmental crises can be laid at the feet of some of the basic commitments of Western philosophy, particularly those indebted to the Christian era. Substance ontology, metaphysical dualism, “essentialism”, and the conception of humans as uniquely rational among other animals are among the most often cited sources of trouble. Hence, turning to philosophical figures who appear to undo these normative claims has been a growing feature of postmodern Western philosophy engaged in environmental activism. As the West has entered its era of climate change awareness and environmental...