Fungorum more. The fact and value of interdependence

The Hobbesian state of nature revolves around the metaphor of men having grown mushroom-like, fungorum more. This metaphor obscures the generative power of the mother and thus the human condition of dependence. Confronting this phantasmatic imaginary and identifying an alternative to it is one of the fundamental aims of some contemporary feminist thought, as exemplified in particular by Judith Butler’s political philosophy. Contemporary mycological studies of the real life of fungi and their ability to construct a true wood-wide web help to facilitate the task of constructing a different imaginary, one which is centred on the question of interdependency between humans and between humans and non-humans. Furthermore, the article questions the possibilities and limits of a political thought that turns the biological fact of interdependency into a value.