Political Thought in the Planetary Situation of the Anthropocene
Vol.26,No.2(2025)
The subject of this study is an investigation into the possibility of establishing a new mode of political thought (political theory) under the conditions of the Anthropocene. The basic principle at play is that the typical civilizational thought of the Western (Atlantic) culture – as embodied in technology – is creating a worldwide situation with no simple avenues for escape. The Westerner has turned his thoughts and reason away from a wisdom leading to harmony, but instead towards deconstruction and destruction, a devastation whose consequences will be a slow, painful, but unavoidable annihilation. This single form of human rationality is responsible for the pillaging of the natural and social environment; it is a form painstakingly protected, privileged and nurtured from the start of European modernism. Capitalism’s economic, technological and demographic growth has had unintended ecological and civilisational consequences with catastrophic cumulative effects on the environment.
political thought; the Anthropocene; environmental political philosophy; climate change; capitalism; environmental humanities
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