CApE Talk: Soul and Environment: Psycho-anthropology of the Nonhuman Worlds
CApE Talk by Professor Oxana Timofeeva
The talk will explore the enduring yet evolving concept of the soul across Western philosophical tradition, where, since antiquity, and into modern philosophy, it has mediated between religion and science, adapting to shifting worldviews. Originating in ancient animistic beliefs and later integrated into Christian theology, in the secular age this concept seemed to lose its scientific relevance. However, the idea of the soul persists in disguised forms across various disciplines. This persistence will be analyzed in the context of the human/nonhuman distinctions, cosmological perspectives and environmental metaphysics. It will be shown how a vintage concept of the soul can function as a metaphor for an intermediary, a point of passage and attachment that links the body with its environment. Soul is not something ethereal or detached, but an embodied experience that connects us to our landscapes. It is through this connection that we engage with the world, sensing and perceiving it in a deeply subjective, sensual manner.
The traditional philosophical motif of the tripartition of the soul, from plant to animal to human, reveals a shared continuum of life, wherein we never truly cease to be animals or plants. Through this perspective, the soul is not only a passageway between body and spirit but a vital, sensory engagement with the Earth and beyond. As a philosophical metaphor of an embodied connection to the world, the soul opens an existential meaning of extinction. As species vanish, so too do the worlds they inhabit—their unique perceptual worlds disappear with them. The loss of biodiversity thus signifies not only the disappearance of species but also the extinction of the specific ways in which they experienced the world. This view, encompassing the interplay between body, soul, and environment, offers a framework for understanding the human position within the greater ecological network and suggests that immortality is not about transcendence, but about dwelling within and belonging to the world.
After the talk, there will be a reception with drinks and snacks.
The event begins on time – if you are late, please ring the bell and reception will let you in.
Oxana Timofeeva
Oxana Timofeeva was born in Siberia in 1978. She was a Professor at the European University of St. Petersburg until 2023 and then moved to Berlin. She is a member of the artistic collective "Chto Delat" ("What is to be done"), and a senior Associate at the Institute of Global Reconstitution (IGRec, Berlin). Her books include Freud’s Beasty Boys: Sex, Violence, and Masculinity (Matthes & Seitz Berlin; Polity, 2025), Solar Politics (Polity 2022), How to Love a Homeland (Kayfa ta), and History of Animals (Bloomsbury 2018). She also published books in Russian, such as This is not That (2022) and Introduction to the Erotic Philosophy of Georges Bataille (2009). Her new book On the Soul is forthcoming in 2025.
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