Amazona vittata: Notes on cosmopolitics and xenocide

The essay seeks to expose philosophically the concept of xenocide by questioning the difference between cosmopolitics and cosmopolitanism as divergent policies as regards to the modes of articulation between humanity and extra-humanity. In particular, the problem of the ontological-political status of extra-human foreignness is developed through a comparison between the figures of the “dark forest”, derived from the science fiction, and of the “crystal forest”, from Yanomami shamanism. Its conclusion consists of a brief commentary on the refutation of Fermi’s paradox by the parrot Amazona vittata in Chiang’s story “The Great Silence.”

Keywords:
Xenocide; Cosmopolitics; Extra-humanity