Guerra ai mutanti: nella metaforica del mare alle origini dell’Antropocene

In the Long Sixteenth Century, where World-Ecology proposes to situate the origins of the Anthropocene, we observe an overall devaluation of the principle of metamorphosis to which philosophical reflection, the experimental method, political doctrine, and even theatrical production seem to contribute. The development of this undertaking, however, the outer boundaries of which could be identified from Giovanni Pico’s reflection, is punctually disturbed by the presence of the aquatic element, with particular reference to the sea, whose connotations continue to deconstruct the movement of “separating humans from the rest of nature” that combines the production of the consistent subject with the so-called processes of primitive accumulation of capital. Therefore, the article aims to provide a historical and conceptual framework to situate this reading hypothesis.