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

Reading group #11: the bifurcation of nature

For our first session this year we will dive into the problem that is seemingly at the heart of our cosmological inquiry, and which we have been spinning around continuously last year: the nature culture divide. We’ll approach it by what might be one of the most powerful conceptualizations to date, Alfred North Whitehead’s “bifurcation of nature.”

The first reading group this year will be held on Friday the 27th of September at 15:00 (UvA, location to be specified).

Readings

Debaise, Didier. “Introduction” and “Chapter One: The Cosmology of the Moderns” in Nature as Event: The Lure of the Possible. Thought in the Act. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017, pg. 1-39.

Whitehead, Alfred North. “Chapter 2: Theories of the bifurcation of Nature,” in The Concept of Nature. Dover Science Books. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications, 2004, pg. 18-32.

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

2023-2024

Cosmological thinking as it has been popping up in the humanities of late, offers some elbow room in the all too dominant, all too human modern ontology, or what John Law aptly calls the “One World World”. Finding its expressions perhaps primarily in anthropology and the study of non-modern ontologies, spearheaded by figures such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, and more recently Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Eduardo Kohn, it has found or refound its ways to other fields as well including philosophy, notably Alfred North Whitehead’s cosmological process philosophy; politics, as with Isabelle Stengers and in her wake Bruno Latour’s cosmopolitics; technics, with for instance Yuk Hui’s cosmotechnics; but also the fields of cinema and literature where it sets out to open the way for non-representational sensibilities in attuning to more-than human worlds.

To register and receive the readings, please contact: h.h.kuipers@uva.nl

Organised by: E. Biolchini, R. Gold, and H.H. Kuipers