Ethics and politics in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The most fundamental challenge facing humans today is the imminent destruction of the life-generating and life-sustaining ecosystems that constitute the planet Earth. There is considerable evidence that the strongest contemporary ecological threat is anthropogenic climate change resulting from the increasing warming of the atmosphere, caused by cumulative CO2 and other emissions as a result of collective human activity over the past few 100 years. This process of climate change is reinforced by further ecological problems such as pollution of land, air and sea, depletion of resources, land degradation and the loss of biodiversity. The name gaining currency for this emerging epoch of instability in the Earth’s eco-systems is the Anthropocene. Anthropogenic climate change calls for a categorical shift in thinking about the place of humanity in these systems and requires fundamental rethinking of ethics and politics. What would an appropriate ethical frame for politics in the Anthropocene look like? In response to this question, I sketch a proposal for an ethically non-anthropocentric ethics. I draw on early Frankfurt School Critical Theorists, and on Habermas, but move beyond these theorists in key respects.

Self‐transformation in the Anthropocene

“…The theoretical possibility of an ethically nonanthropocentric ethics hinges on the distinction between problematic and nonproblematic instrumental relationships between subjects and their objects. Instrumental relationships are nonproblematic when the subject denies neither its constitutive connectedness with the objects over which it exercises power, nor the distinctive qualities of these objects (2020a). Crucially, this requires subjects’ “ attentiveness ” to objects’ “specific constitution” and “particular qualities,” which “entails relating to the specificities of others as putative embodiments of ethical good, the source of which is not human powers but transcendent to them” (2020a).…”

“…Instrumental relationships are nonproblematic when the subject denies neither its constitutive connectedness with the objects over which it exercises power, nor the distinctive qualities of these objects (2020a). Crucially, this requires subjects’ “ attentiveness ” to objects’ “specific constitution” and “particular qualities,” which “entails relating to the specificities of others as putative embodiments of ethical good, the source of which is not human powers but transcendent to them” (2020a). 5 Cooke interprets the thesis of constitutive connectedness along the lines of Adorno's insight that “Peace is the state of differentiation without domination, with the differentiated participating in each other” (quoted in Cooke, 2020a).…”

“…Cooke invites us to consider “an ethically non‐anthropocentric ethics” as the “appropriate ethical frame for transformative politics in the Anthropocene” (2020a, see also her contribution in this issue). Two entwined features characterize this ethical frame: the centrality of “ attentiveness ” to the “distinctive separateness” and “specific constitution” of nonhuman entities (Cooke, 2020a), and the dependence of such attentiveness upon a self‐transformation constituent. In Section 2, I present Cooke's proposal for an ethically nonanthropocentric ethics.…”

O que pode a crítica diante da crise? Um ensaio sobre tendências de crise, pandemia e modos de reflexividade.

“…E para tanto é preciso sensibilizar e ativar um potencial cognitivo "dormente" e superar as barreiras que impedem a percepção das consequências destrutivas da separação entre humanos e natureza. É nesse sentido que as ciências e a política, mas também a crítica social, passam a ter que considerar mais seriamente uma orientação "ética não atropocêntrica" (Cooke, 2020) como uma alternativa para lidar de modo mais estrito e menos relativista com a natureza não humana, evitando um autoritarismo epistêmico que se revela demasiadamente limitado e até perigoso para compreender as transformações do planeta e os efeitos da ação instrumental, que deve ser reelaborada de modo mais atento às qualidades intrínsecas do objeto de seu trabalho. Sem isso, mesmo tecnologias "verdes" se tornariam cegas quanto a possibilidades não antecipadas, deixando de ser uma alternativa transformadora para o Antropoceno.…”

Climate Change and Its Lexicon: An Analytical and Critical View

“…Different strands, with distinct connections to critical theory traditions, focused on different issues. This includes discussions on justice (Parks & Timmons, 2010 ), the Anthropocene (Angus, 2016 ) and the Capitalocene (Moore, 2014 ), the extension and radicalisation of the destructive aspects of the ‘dialectic of the Enlightenment’ (Görg, 2016 ) and ‘emancipatory catastrophism’ (Beck, 2016 ); on how Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’ can be mobilised to tackle responses to climate change (Lövbrand et al, 2009 ) and how a non-anthropocentric ethics can be worked out from Adorno and Horkheimer’s as well as Habermas’ theories (Cooke, 2020 ); or on the very definitions of ‘nature’ and ‘society’ (Domingues, forthcoming ). Yet, there is still much to be done.…”