Abstract

In her scrutiny of the discipline of ethology, psychologist and philosopher Vinciane Despret is no respecter of disciplinary limits, species borders, nodes of prestige, impact factor, pre-existing truths and facts, or Western science's exclusive authority. Instead, she seeks out unanticipated communicatory modes and dialogic mixes – highlow, inout, natureculture. Her reach and popularity as a Belgian and French intellectual thus extend well beyond her formal citation index. The translation below surveys her five-minute segment on the radio show Bon week-end, which is aired on Radio Télévision Belge Francophone. This compilation of recent programmes finds her sleuthing theory construction, legal status, taxonomic classification, research conditions, and capacities vis-àvis dogs, horses, humans, cassowary, dinosaurs, sheep, and tortoises