13th March 2019 | 5.00-7.00 pm
Margaret Macmillan Building (MMB) 220
Goldsmiths, University of London
London SE14 6NW

Part of the Pluralistic Variations Lecture Series
Organised by Dr Martin Savransky (Sociology)

Theory of Metamorphosis

Since Darwin, we know that every biological identity is the result of a metamorphosis: every species is only a transformation of the one that preceded it. Based on some of the most remarkable examples (such as the transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly), this talk would like to question the structure of life in its most extreme power: that of metamorphosis. In it is shown the fact that all life is unassignable to a specific anatomical and ecological identity and that all living beings participate in a single and unique life that crosses all forms and species. We will articulate the analysis of the forms of metamorphosis in three stages: mutation, nutrition and sexuality.

Emanuele Coccia is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and formerly taught in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. He has worked extensively on biology and aesthetics, and has written about contemporary art and fashion. His publications include Sensible Life (Fordham University Press, 2016), Goods:Advertising, Urban Space and the Moral Law of the Image (Ford- ham University Press, 2018), and The Life of Plants (Polity Press, 2018). With Giorgio Agamben, he edited an extensive anthology covering angels in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Angeli. Giudaismo, Cristianesimo, Islam (Neri Pozza, 2009). He recently published with Donatien Grau a book on the history and the meaning of concept stores, The Transitory Museum (Polity Press, 2018).