In light of Dr Auzoux’s conception of the living world, as reflected in his anatomical models, we invite Emanuele Coccia, philosopher of the living world and author of the book Métamorphoses.

“We have all been fascinated by this mystery: a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly. Their bodies have almost nothing in common. Their silhouettes, anatomy and clothes are different. One crawls while the other flutters. They don’t share the same world: the ground versus the air. Yet they are one and the same life. They are the same self. This book argues that metamorphosis – the phenomenon that allows the same life to exist in disparate bodies – is also the relationship that binds all species together, that unites the living with the mineral. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, plants, animals: we are all part of the same life. Each of these lives is in turn the metamorphosis of the infinite flesh of the world. We are the butterfly of this enormous caterpillar that is our Earth”.

Italian-born Emanuele Coccia is a philosopher. He has been invited as a research professor at the universities of Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Düsseldorf, then at Columbia and Harvard. He is currently a lecturer at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). His books include La Vie sensible, La Vie des plantes, Métamorphoses and Philosophie de la maison. Une métaphysique du mélange, was awarded the 2017 Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco prize and has been translated into ten languages.