Philosophy of the Earth. Towards an alliance with the planet
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
The idea of nature has returned once again at the contemporary reflection’s heart. It is an unstable notion, no longer easily opposable to ‘culture’. The same idea of a return to nature seems obsolete: we are part of nature, which is not an essence to be protected or violated, and is itself imbued with artificiality. It is important to understand the etymological meaning of ‘nature’, its essential connection with birth, generation and regeneration. The Earth itself can be understood in this sense: it can no longer be regarded as a solid and inanimate element, uniform and inert beneath our feet. If we consider it as a planet, it appears as a global entity, a dynamic unity of diverse aspects, in close mutual relationships. Its celestial nature is not separate from life and from its evolution. As soil, it is a world in its own right: active, generative, intelligent, teeming with life, a vast repository of biodiversity – not a tabula rasa at our disposal, exploitable for our own goals. Its history is vast and not easily deciphered, a complex and dynamic process of becoming: it unfolds on a different scale from that of humans, yet is deeply intertwined with it. An alliance with the Earth, viewed from a non-anthropocentric perspective, is possible – and perhaps necessary.
PAOLA GIACOMONI | University of Trento
Cycle of Seminars: “Solitude and Communion in Religion and Ethics“
Scientific coordination: Massimo Leone, FBK-ISR
The event, organized by FBK’s Center for Religious Studies, will be held in Italian.
The event will be in-person in the FBK Aula Piccola, while seats last, and online.
Registration by November 6, 2026 at 12:00 a.m. is required so as to arrange the connection.
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Image: AdobeStock_518968971
Speakers
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Paola Giacomoni - SpeakerUniversity of TrentoPaola Giacomoni is a historian of philosophy at the University of Trento; her interests include philosophy of nature, history of ideas and the relationship between philosophy and sciences. Her work has focused on the philosophy of nature in Goethe and the Romantics, the mountain landscape, the relationship between philosophy and emotions, and a new philosophy of the Earth. She was Visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (2011, 2017), Senior Fellow at the Italian Academy at Columbia University in New York (2015), academic curator of the exhibitions ‘Montagna. Arte, scienza mito’ (2003) and ‘La terra trema’ (2005) (Mart, Rovereto). She has published articles and essays internationally, among them: “Il nuovo laboratorio della natura” (2019); “The Dark Side: Philosophical Reflections on the “Negative Emotions” (2021); “La terra siamo noi” (2026). A columnist for “Corriere della Sera” (Trentino-Alto Adige), she contributes to the newsletter “Appunti”.
Contacts
Organizers
The initiative was also realized thanks to the contribution of "Direzione generale Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali" of the Ministry of Culture.