LECTURE
 

Notes on Eating in Theory

MON 10 OCTOBER, 20:00

Auditorium, Tongersestraat 53 (changed location)

 

Prof. Annemarie Mol

Professor of Anthropology of the Body, University of Amsterdam

 

Philosophical treatises are informed by exemplary situations. In the twentieth century these were mass killings by authoritarian regimes. Presently we are in addition faced with grave ecological crises. Hence, while earlier it made sense to dream up ‘the human’ as a creature able to rise above ‘beasts’, now we do well to take seriously the physical entanglements between humans and other creatures.

 

In her book Eating in Theory, Mol discusses the practices of eating to argue for new theoretical terms that describe the realities of environmental destruction. She suggests that the terms we currently use elevate thinking and talking above eating and nurturing, hence giving ‘the human’ a superior role in the debate. With this observation she actively interferes in the ‘Western philosophical tradition’ as she proposes alternative understandings of being, knowing, doing and relating by using eating as presenting exemplary situations with which to think. In this talk, she will present us with a few tasters.

 

Annemarie Mol is a ethnographer who works at the intersection of philosophy and anthropology with a focus on the body and embodiment. She is well-known for her work on post-Actor Network Theory and feminist understandings of technology, medicine and science.