Was ik maar een rups. Over de metamorfosen van Emanuele Coccia

In this article, Tessa de Vet analyses the work of the Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia, who understands metamorphosis as the fundamental principle of our existence. Coccia argues that no being exists on its own: the lives of humans, plants, and other animals are radically intertwined and mutually dependent. Through breathing oxygen, being born from our parents’ matter and constantly feeding on other life forms – be it berries or boars – we are ‘ontological bastards’: ever-renewing mixtures of different expressions of life. Coccia rejects conventional ideas about change such as conversion and revolution, and argues instead that metamorphosis is impersonal, continuous and transcends the boundaries between the self and the world. Central to his argument is the cocoon as a space in new identities emerge. As humans lack the morphic capabilities of caterpillars, Coccia locates the human cocoon in technology and consciousness rather than the body. He ultimately presents fashion as our most radical form of transformation, as a temporary changing skin. The author criticizes this romanticization of fashion for ignoring social inequality, political power relation and coercion, yet maintains that Coccia’s metaphysics of interspecific immersion offers a valuable invitation to radically rethink our autonomy, ownership and consumption.