The Human Condition in the Anthropocene: Epistemic Debates and Conceptual Tensions

Abstract

The article examines how the concept of the Anthropocene reshapes the foundational assumptions of philosophical anthropology, particularly the duality between nature and culture, and between necessity and freedom. It analyses the epistemological and political consequences of recognising humanity as a geobiological force. Within this framework, two major approaches are explored: one that preserves the homo/anthropos distinction to differentiate power from impact, maintaining the modern dual structure and its articulation with the concept of the technosphere; and another, inspired by pluriversal and materialist perspectives, that challenges the nature/culture dichotomy and introduces the concept of Gaia (Latour and Lenton) as an alternative to the Earth System model, emphasising the historicity, contingency, and heterogeneity of the relationships between the living and the non-living.