On September 24 and 25, 2025, Bratislava Castle will become the venue for an important international scientific conference entitled “Navigating the Anthropocene: New Frontiers in Environmental and Political Philosophy”, organized by the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.
The conference focuses on the philosophical and political implications of the Anthropocene, a new geological period in which human activity has become the dominant force influencing climatic, ecological and social processes on the planet. Although the term Anthropocene comes from the natural sciences, its real meaning and implications are primarily philosophical, civilizational and value-based. It raises fundamental questions about the place of man in the world, about the character of modernity, about the relationship between technology and power, as well as about the future of democratic institutions at a time of growing environmental and social instability.
The conference will explore how global industrialization and the emergence of an autonomous technosphere are disrupting the balance between man and nature, as well as between the individual and society. The discussion will focus on the crisis of public space, the misuse of scientific knowledge, the decline of critical thinking and the search for simple answers to complex problems. Emphasis will be placed on the need for transdisciplinary thinking, open dialogue between science and society, and philosophical reflection on the values on which an ethically sustainable and democratic response to the challenges of the Anthropocene should be based.
The keynote speakers of the event are Peter Wagner, Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Barcelona (Spain), Hans-Herbert Kögler, philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of North Florida (USA), Petra Gümplová, political scientist and researcher at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany) and Robert Braun, sociologist and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna (Austria). The conference will also feature speakers from Italy, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Finland, Portugal, Turkey and the Czech Republic. The Slovak academic community will be represented by scientists from the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.
The conference will bring a discussion between philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, environmental scientists and the general public, who are looking for answers to the questions of survival, justice and democracy in a time of global uncertainty that is specific to the Anthropocene.
The organizers invite everyone who is interested in critical thinking about the future of humanity to a two-day academic event, which will take place at one of the most important symbolic places in Slovakia – Bratislava Castle.
Venue: Bratislava Castle, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2025 – Thursday, 25 September 2025
* The conference is held with the support of the grant VEGA 2/0072/21: The Tasks of Political Philosophy in the Context of the Anthropocene.
Edited by: Peter Daubner, Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences