The Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is preparing an interdisciplinary scientific conference The Logic of Capital and the Concept of the Anthropocene: Interdisciplinary Perspectives of the Planetary Crisis on September 10, 2026. The event will take place in the premises of the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, v. v. i., at Klemensova 19 in Bratislava and is associated with a call for conference papers.
Key information about the event
The conference is focused on critical reflection on the concept of the Anthropocene, which in recent decades has become one of the central concepts of contemporary humanities and social science thinking and is used as a paradigmatic framework for interpreting the global environmental crisis.
The term Anthropocene is understood here not only as a designation of the presence of a “human footprint” in the geological processes of the planet, but above all as a symptomatic uncovering of the deep structural links between modernity, the capitalist mode of production and environmental degradation.
Plenary lectures will be given by doc. Mgr. Richard Stahel, PhD. (Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava), doc. Martin Ritter, Ph.D. (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) and doc. Mgr. Michael Hauser, Ph.D. (Charles University, Prague).
Thematic focus of the conference
The conference is based on the assumption that the global environmental crisis is not only an ecological or technical problem, but represents a fundamental civilizational turning point that questions the epistemological and ethical foundations of modern thought. In the logic of capitalist accumulation, the planet is reduced to an object of constant exploitation, which leads to transformations of ecological systems, social structures and forms of human subjectivity.
The aim of the event is to analyze how current planetary processes – climate change, biodiversity loss, geopolitics of resources, technological rationalization or growing social inequality – combine into one systemically conditioned horizon, which is at the same time material, political, economic, environmental, social and epistemological.
Interdisciplinary perspectives and the aim of the event
The conference seeks an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy, political economy, political ecology, philosophical anthropology, cultural theory, and the history of science. Interdisciplinarity is not understood as a simple sum of disciplines, but as a way of thinking that transcends the dichotomies between nature and society, science and philosophy, theory and practice.
Contributions that reflect in an original and critical way the connections between modernity, capitalist rationality and the global environmental crisis, as well as their implications for philosophy, social theory and contemporary forms of planetary thinking, are welcome. Contributions from the fields of critical and radical political philosophy, environmental philosophy and political or social ecology, political economy, posthumanism, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of history, philosophy of technology, and ontological, epistemological and ethical reflections on the Anthropocene and global capitalism are particularly appreciated.
Organizational support and applications
The conference is held within the project VEGA No. 2/0110/24 Tasks of Political Philosophy in the Context of the Anthropocene II.
The application form for the conference together with the abstract of the paper should be sent to the following address: peter.daubner@savba.sk