Being Alive. Humans in the Web of Life

This course, originally designed for international medical students, aims to create a space for reflection on the situation of life in our world, through discussion of texts drawing on biology, philosophy and ethics, indigenous studies and anthropology, but engaging also with geology, history, literature, economics, and the law.

We explore the diverse constellations of life forms in the planetary history and the ways in which we are interconnected with other forms of life through evolutionary origins, molecular and metabolic pathways, constant interactions and mutual nourishment. We also focus on the changing conditions of the planet, many of which are caused by the expansion of human civilization – the loss of abundance and diversity of life, intensifying toxic pollution of air, waters, and soil, which penetrate and interfere with biochemical and ecological processes, and the resulting perturbation of the climate and aquatic systems – and the implications these have for the living world. We critically examine the assumptions of our cultural and knowledge systems and the ways in which these shape our understanding and dealing with the living world, and explore the possibilities of re-integration into the community of life, of participating on the regeneration of the living world.

Throughout the course we reflect on – but also aim to experience – different ways of ‘being alive’, by learning to being attentive to other forms of life and diverse modes of being. 

Our course has three interlinked elements: a series of readings and discussions of texts centered around 17 themes, a listening exercise, and final reflective piece of creative artwork. We think of this course as an exploration of a landscape, opening up horizons for new ways of thinking, experiencing, creating, and living.

Please join us, on your own, or by forming a discussion group with your friends!

These are the themes of our sessions

1. Becoming Earthlings. Marcia Bjørnerud

2. Geological perspectives on deep time, past mass extinctions, and the Anthropocene. Marcia Bjørnerud, Thomas Halliday

3. Interconnectedness of life: evolution, symbiosis, symbiogenesis. Lynn Margulis

4. Humans within the biosphere. Rachel Carson

5. Life as a process and interaction. Aliveness and sensibility. Alfred I. Tauber, Baptiste Morizot, Andreas Weber

6. Belonging, interconnectedness, and reciprocity in the perspective of indigenous cultures. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Enrique Salmon, David Abram

7. Relationships between human beings and the more-than-human world. Deborah Bird Rose, Val Plumwood, Nastassja Martin

8. Modernity and the transformation of views on humans and nature. Andri Snaer Magnason, Pierre Charbonier

9. Colonialism and its implications for the land and life. Amitav Ghosh, Malcolm Ferdinand, Max Liboiron

10. Ownership of the land and the economisation of life. Garrett Hardin, Milton Friedman, Elinor Ostrom, Jason Hickel

11. War on nature. Sunil Amrith, Benjamin Labatut

12. Humans as participants in regeneration of land and the living world. Dave Goulson, William Cronon

13. “Buen vivir” and the essential sufficiency of the world. M. Kat Anderson, Davi Kopenawa, Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro

14. Human nature. Baruch Spinoza, Hans Jonas

15. Metaphors of life and healing in cultural imagination. Gregg Mitman, Barry Lopez

16. Freedom and responsibility. Hans Jonas, Cormac Cullinan

17. Love in the times of terror. Barry Lopez, Erazim Kohák