Species’ Trouble and the Planetary Unrest

At the outset of the three-part lecture series “Fremder Planet”, theatre scholar Ulrike Haß talks about the human species, the first biological species that causes mass species extinction. The image this species produces of itself has historically grown – and has been decisive for the human triumph over nature.

This was mainly forced and promoted by the Christian, Western white world with its rationalism. But it is based on decisions made in pre-Christianity. Especially important to this is the self-definition as a species. During very long aeons, agrarian, sedentary cultures displace the nomads, while the widespread ideas of uterine origins of life become replaced by the discovery of a male part in procreation. The weight slowly shifts from birthing to fathering. As soon as sperm is determined as the first cause of creation, creation becomes a male project. A gender binary ensues. It allows for the definition of humans as coming from two humans. Species-crossing relations and gender plurality are excluded as “not human”. An inclusive definition of species cuts relations to any form of other life that the species depends on. Today for the first time, a biological species causes mass species extinction, and the perspective that life is capable of destroying itself arises.

About the Lecture Series

Global ecological and political challenges mark our present; we experience a rapid development of artificial intelligence as well as a spacefaring revival. Is there a correlation between these phenomena? And what is their link to the resurgence of authoritarian governmental regimes? The lectures in this series examine the change of the image humans create of themselves and the world – with Ulrike Haß, Jan Völker, and Samo Tomšič.