Reading group #12: predation

Thinking in cosmology proposes an interesting alternative to the all too human thought of our modern era, its insistence on a separation of Nature and Culture, and thus its removal from the world – thought, Deleuze and Guattari once asserted, crosses the universe in an instant. In this workgroup we explore the numerous possibilities the cosmological might open up to and how it moves in the works of some of the most important thinkers today: from the work on non-modern cosmologies and ontologies in the so called “ontological turn,” spearheaded by figures such as Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Phillipe Descola, and Eduardo Kohn; to the process philosophical works of Alfred North Whitehead which again flourishes in the cosmopolitics of Isabelle Stengers and in ways Bruno Latour; to works problematizing the modern perspective from specific ecologies, mental, social, or environmental, such as in the works of Marìa Lugones, Marisol de la Cadena, and Donna Haraway; to its possible deployment in relation to technics in Yuk Hui’s cosmotechnics. What is the relevance of such cosmological thinking for the Humanities?

Organised by: E. Biolchini, J. Leeuwenkamp, and H.H. Kuipers

The second reading group of this year will be on predation and will be held on October the 18^th from 15:00-18:00, in Bushuis F1.14.

Readings:

- Plumwood, Val. chapter 1-3. The Eye of the Crocodile. Canberra: Austrtalian National University E Press, 2012, pp. 1-45.

- Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. Chapter 8: "The Metaphysics of Predation". Cannibal Metaphysics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014, pp. 139-149.

- As optional we've added the book (yes, a whole book, but it is really a light read - really!) by Nastassja Martin, In the Eye of the Wild (2021). You can read this is if you have the time and interest.

To participate send an email to: h.h.kuipers@uva.nl