Yves Bonnardel | |
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.jpg) Bonnardel in 2017 | |
| Born | 1967 (age 57–58) Lyon, France |
| Occupation(s) | Activist, philosopher, writer, editor |
| Website | yves-bonnardel.info |
Yves Bonnardel (born 1967) is a French activist, philosopher, writer and editor. He advocates forantispeciesism,libertarianism andegalitarianism. Bonnardel is one of the founding members of the French journalCahiers antispécistes ("Antispeciesist Notebooks") and of the eventsVeggie Pride, Les Estivales de la question animale ("The Summers of the Animal Question") and themarch to close all slaughterhouses.
Bonnardel was born in 1967 in a small town south ofLyon.[1] His father was a secondary school teacher who was highly involved in the FrenchMaoist movement.[2] He became avegetarian at the age of 13.[1] His father's choice of political engagement inspired Bonnardel to take a different path, turning toindividualist anarchism and leaving school early with the intention to live in a community and train, before getting involved in activist causes. He became an activist against adult supremacy, before also taking up antispeciesism as a cause.[2]
In May 1989, along withDavid Olivier and three other activists, Bonnardel publishedNous ne mangeons pas de viande pour ne pas tuer d'animaux ("We Do Not Eat Meat So We Do Not Kill Animals"), in response to discussions of vegetarianism in France.[3] In 1991, together with Olivier and Françoise Blanchon, he founded the antispeciesist journalCahiers antispécistes lyonnais (later renamed toCahiers antispécistes).[4] He was also one of the journal's editors, before leaving at some point during the 1990s.[5] In 1997, he co-wrote and distributed the Manifesto for the Abolition of International Apartheid with Olivier.[6]
Bonnardel co-foundedVeggie Pride in 2001.[7] Bonnardel is an editor of the antispeciesist French-language journalL'Amorce ("The Primer").[8]
Bonnardel is anantinaturalist and critical of the concept of nature, describing it as an "ideological tool", which places humans in a superior position of freedom, while other animals are seen as needing to obey natural cycles, such as thefood chain. He argues that animals are seen as existing only to perform certain ecosystem functions, such as a rabbit being food for a wolf. Bonnardel compares this with the religious concept of woman existing for the sake of man, or the slaves for their masters and argues that all individual animals have an interest in living. He is critical of the concept of abalance of nature, stating "[w]hat we call balance, or order, in practice, it's chaos, it's nonsense". Bonnardel has also discussed thepredation problem, seeing it as an issue that we should work towards solving.[1]
Bonnardel is critical ofhumanism, describing it as a form of elitism centred on white men, arguing that "[h]umanism is racism, patriarchy, the education of children, slaughterhouses". He instead argues for egalitarianism.[1] Bonnardel is ahedonistic utilitarian who advocates placingsentient individuals at the centre of moral concern because they have desires, perceptions, emotions, and a will of their own; he argues that from this follows a moral axiom "[o]ne must not harm a sentient being".[1] Bonnardel was influenced byPeter Singer'sAnimal Liberation and is a supporter of Singer's conception of speciesism, seeing it as instrumental in deconstructinganthropocentric morality.[9]
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