Pardon to the bull

Authors

  • Daniel R. Esparza Columbia University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62876/lr.vi37.4548

Keywords:

bullfighting, pardon, sacrifice, forgiveness, animality

Abstract

What happens when a bull is pardoned in the arena? The art of bullfighting, according
to Domingo Ortega’s definition, is “a very complex thing.” Forgiveness is also complex:
as Ricoeur argued, if forgiveness is difficult to give and to receive “it is just as difficult to
conceive of”. What does it mean, then, that this “ontologic asymmetry” bullfighting
makes evident can be solved not only through death but also through forgiveness?
Understanding the pardon —the indulto— the bull can be granted is then a venture that
seems to be difficult twice over. Following Pérez Oramas, Bataille, and Kojève, we
want to suggest this pardoning of the bull is a kind of sacrificial action (and, hence, an
“originary” one) in which man recognizes if not his own continuity with the “animal
darkness” Bataille refers to, at least its being-in-the-limit of the border that separates
(and, hence, unites) animality and humanity.

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References

Bataille, Georges: Theory of Religion, (la traducción de la edición inglesa es nuestra), New York, Zone Books, 1989, p. 23.

Katz, Marilyn A.: Ox-Slaughter and Goring Oxen: Homicide, Animal Sacrifice, and Judicial Process, en Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Volumen 2 (Issue 2), artículo 3, 2013, p. 249.

Kojève, Alexandre: Dialéctica del amo y el esclavo en Hegel, Buenos Aires, La Pléyade, 1971, p. 24.

Ortega y Gasset, José: Sobre la caza, los toros, y el toreo, (Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1986), p. 131.

Pérez Oramas, Luis: Olvidar la muerte, Valencia, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda / (Pre-Textos, 2015), p. 99.

Yankélévitch, Vladimir: Forgiveness (traducción al inglés de Andrew Kelley, la traducción de la edición inglesa es nuestra), (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2013), p. 5.

Published

2020-04-15

How to Cite

Esparza, D. R. (2020). Pardon to the bull. Lógoi. Revista De Filosofia, (37), 78–88. https://doi.org/10.62876/lr.vi37.4548