There is a mystery about animals not the least merit of which is that one cannot resist concluding that when it comes to animals, philosophers – regardless of their reputation – generally have a low opinion of them. When confronting the silent, deep, and enigmatic nature of animals, philosophic (and even scientific) discourse, mired in what is human, belittles itself and chases its own tail: we believe we are talking about animals, only to find that yet again, as always, we are actually discussing humanity. Chase people off and they come back running.
The aim of this essay – which combines analyses, anecdotes and metaphorical story-telling in an attempt to break the painful "silence of animals" – is to restore to animals their rightful ontological dignity, challenge the disdain with which they are viewed by humans in the name of Intelligence, denounce the idiocy of preconceptions fattened by Reason, banish the concept of shameful origins and banish the concept of shameful origins.

Born in Corrèze, but raised in the French department of Lot, Alain Leygonie completed his humanities programme in Brive and his graduate studies in Toulouse, where he taught philosophy.