Abstract

From early childhood on, mimetic processes are extremely important both for retaining and passing on the negative effects of the Anthropocene as well as for changing them and making fundamental reforms in the relationship between human beings and nature. Plato and Aristotle understood people depend on mimetic processes for their individual and collective, cultural, and social development. This insight has been confirmed by research in Historical Anthropology, in Evolutionary Anthropology and in Neuroscience. People learn to a very large extent in mimetic processes, that is, through imitating, making themselves similar, representing. These processes are not simple copying processes like making photocopies. They are productive processes in which people behaving mimetically take an “impression” of the behaviour of other people which they then integrate into their imaginary.