Within the history of philosophy the appearance of the animal does not occur by chance. Hence, as has been intimated in the opening chapter, what matters is not the animal's appearance as though appearances simply occur. The contrary is the case. Centrality needs to be given to the concept and categories that regulate that appearance and which are thus already at work in the animal's figured presence. What is of continual concern therefore is the appearance of the animal within a juxtaposition within which that positioning is assumed to be productive. The animal is for the most part juxtaposed with what is taken to be proper to human being. What is produced as a result, or at least this is the intention, is the properly human. The result of the juxtaposition therefore is that the propriety of human being can only arise in its differentiation from the animal. As will emerge this differentiation involves an already given relation between the animal and the body (the latter as the site where there is an already present meld between human and non-human animals). The body is the continual register of human animality.

The attempted act of differentiation between that which pertains to human propriety and the body (incorporating human animality) is not unique to any one philosophical position. At work within it are a series of organising moves that produce both the properly human and the figure of the animal. The reciprocity is clear. While philosophical positions may often differ significantly in relation to each other, there are at times important moments of intersection concerning the way both the animal and the body figure within them.