This essay examines how the oxymoron “factory farm” became conceivable. The anthropocentric presumption of human dominion bridged the transition from religious-based to science-based philosophies, characterizing non-human nature as an unfeeling, unknowing mechanism. Marx described how the capitalist labor system alienated humans from their “species-being” (gattungswesen). The author proposes that the “Big MAC” of materialism, anthropocentrism and capitalism converge in their prohibition of animals from being their own entities with their own interests and identities.

[Abstract excerpted from original source.]

“This article explores the cultural and philosophical foundations of factory farming. Modes of capitalist production play a role: Marx’s analysis of the fourfold alienation of labor can be applied to animal-laborers. However, the harshness with which animals are treated exceeds the harshness directed toward human workers. At root is a cultural anthropocentrism that prohibits viewing animals as moral subjects, removing ethical restraints. Ultimately, the modernist ways in which animals are treated as both like and unlike human workers are related to the rise of Cartesian mechanism. The categories of ‘human’ and ‘animal’ are reconfigured by the image of the ‘machine.'”