2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Theories and representations of "hybridity" in Western history of thought
| Project/Area Number |
20K00103
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Metropolitan University |
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Principal Investigator |
グロワザール ジョスラン 東京都立大学, 人文科学研究科, 准教授 (30781885)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | hybridity / nature/culture / human/animal / Baptiste Morizot / Vinciane Despret / Philippe Descola |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In FY2023, I conducted research mainly on human-animal hybridity. The combination of human and animal parts into a half-human half-animal hybrid being has been used from Ancient times to represent sacred beings, monsters, or creatures exceeding the normal order of nature. In recent anthropology and philosophy, the concept of natural order itself and its opposition to culture have been increasingly challenged, so that hybridity of human and animal became an image of the blurred limit between culture and nature. Taking the example of the philosophy of French contemporary thinker Baptiste Morizot, I tried to show that his insistence on being conscious of capabilities we have in common with other animals and his philosophical elaboration of practices such as tracking invite us to reinvent our humanity as a kind of hybridity between other animal species and our own. This approach is relevant to crucial contemporary issues since the revision of our relationship to nature and the criticism of the concept of nature itself are necessary steps to invent new ways of relating to our non-human environment and to devise alternative social and economic models that would be more sustainable than the current one.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
As I focused on contemporary philosophical debates in FY2023, some delay has occurred in my planned research on the aesthetics of hybridity in the 18th century and its philosophical background.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In FY2024, I plan to divide my research into 3 main issues: 1. the part played by the notion of hybridity in the development of evolution theories; 2. the aesthetics of hybridity in 18th century French literature and philosophy (mainly Diderot and Restif de la Bretonne); 3. the philosophical and political meaning of hybrid creatures in French contemporary fiction (mainly Alain Damasio).
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| Causes of Carryover |
Research costs were lower than planned in the first years of the project because I could not make research trips to Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic. I plan to use the remaining amount to buy academic publications necessary for the continuation of the research project.
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