Thinking Relationally Across the Fragile Sciences

Robert A. Wilson (University of Western Australia)

In chh.3-4 of Kin Matters (Oxford University Press, 2026), I use the discussions of John Locke’s views of relations by the cultural anthropologists Marilyn Strathern and Marshall Sahlins to structure a broader account of relations, defending what I call Dependentism as a general view of relations. In this talk, I discuss what we might hope for from such a general view with sensitivity to the differences and gaps between the philosophical and anthropological literatures, particularly those that involve the cognitive, biological, and social sciences.