-NOTHING OF THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF CATS-: THE REMAINDER OF THE lOGOS

Henry David Thoreau once posed a Question which now challenges us as philosophers who would take up the issue of ethics and animals: "What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?" This Question is a spur to us. Even if we object that the Question requires Qualification, that "absolutely nothing" is too strong. that philosophers have indeed considered the Question of the origins of animals, that we know something ...even if we object that Thoreau died too young (1862) to fully comprehend Darwin's Origin of the Species (1859)...the Question provokes us afresh. Thoreau's question both cites and sites a failure of philosophy and philosophers: because we know nothing of the origin and destiny of cats we fail as philosophers. The Question. further, situates the failure in one endeavor: knowing cats. A shift. a