The Other Invention of Nature (EN)

In this lecture, Michael Marder will explore the concept of nature as a paradoxical and dynamic interplay between stasis and genesis—a simultaneous condition of stagnation and becoming, collapse and creation, fixity and upheaval. Drawing on theology, classical philosophy, and contemporary theory, he examines how nature has been historically fabricated, invented and reinvented—conceptually, politically, and technologically—as both the site of immutable essence and as the ever-so-provisional product of ongoing evolution and involution. From ancient Indian and Chinese thought to Aristotle’s metaphysical distinctions, from natural theology to the social construction of nature, from reproductive technologies to global ecological discourses, he will interrogate how the concept of nature functions as a site of ideological struggle: at once a legitimating ground for order and hierarchy, and a contested field of potential transformation.

Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Reconstitution (IGRec), Berlin. His most recent books include The Phoenix Complex (2023), Time Is a Plant (2023), with Edward S. Casey, Plants in Place (2024), Eco-Freud (2025) and Metamorphoses Reimagined (2025). More information at michaelmarder.org.

This lecture took place during the festival in September 2025.