The World Is Full of Persons: Relational Ontologies in Indigenous Philosophy
From Lakota to Māori: the world is a web of reciprocal relations. You'll work through kinship, animism, and rights of nature and ask what that means for climate and AI.
Steps
- 1
- Reading· ~11 min
Reciprocity, Kinship, and the Grammar of Animacy
How relational ontologies generate specific ethical obligations, and what Robin Wall Kimmerer's Potawatomi science reveals about a different way of knowing.
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- Reading· ~9 min
Viveiros de Castro and Ontological Perspectivism
How Amerindian perspectivism inverts Western naturalism, and what it means for comparative philosophy.
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- Text Explore· ~8 min
The Grammar of Animacy
Examine Kimmerer's account of what a language of animate beings does to ethics and perception.
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- Argument Map· ~10 min
From Grammar to Ontology to Ethics
Map the philosophical argument from relational ontology to ethical obligations to the living world.
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- Dialogue· ~10 min
Dialogue: Can Plants Be Persons?
Challenge the philosophical coherence of extending personhood to non-human beings.
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- Reflection· ~8 min
Reflection: Your Relationships with Non-Humans
Reflect on the beings you share the world with and how your ontology shapes those relationships.
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Complete the Reflection step in this path to rate it and share your thoughts in the comments.