Conference contribution by Anna Lena Stefanides

At the conference "Interwoven - Subjects beyond Autonomy and Dissolution" at the IPU Berlin on September 26, 2025, Anna Lena Stefanides gave a lecture on the misunderstandings that pervade so-called neo-animisms. By contrasting the animistic subject constitution characterized by Philippe Descola and the idea of the autonomous cognitive subject since René Descartes, she showed how understandable the "return" to self and world relations in "harmony with nature" is in the objectified world of powerless human subjects, but also what dangers it harbours in the differently constituted modern society: it only drives us further into the illusion of the separation of nature and society. Thus she came to the conclusion that the search for the subject, on the contrary of itself, remains attached to the rule of the subject and in this respect continues to correspond to the rule of the mind, rationality and the man who wanted to escape it. Consequently, hope for a change in circumstances seems to be able to rely only on the experience of transcendence. The conference will be followed by an anthology in which the lecture will be published.